MedSpa Marketing

So what is driving new demand for MedSpa services in today’s environment?

Is it New Technology? New Treatment Options? Social Media? Digital Marketing? Baby Boomers Aging? More Awareness? More Competition? COVID-19 Issues?

Yes, in part to all of these, but let’s look at this a little deeper and find out HOW you can drive more appointments and sales to your MedSpa.

An increasing number of aesthetic treatment alternatives is now projected to be one of the key growth-driving factors in the MedSpa industry in the US. The integration of some other business areas like travel, hospitality, cosmetics, fitness, etc. with wellness tourism, especially in the US, (but also in Asian countries like India, China, and Thailand), is expected to drive the market up even further.

There are technological advancements, such as laser systems, that have resulted in an increased cost of medical spa procedures, but there is also increased demand from an aging population. For example, in 2016 alone, the average cost of a laser skin resurfacing procedure increased by around 15%.

That was just in one year…

Rising disposable income levels will continue to drive the demand for new and aggressive MedSpa procedures. The ever Growing popularity of wellness tourism is anticipated to even further expand the market in the coming years.

In 2017, an international wellness tourist spent an average of around USD $1,528 per trip, accounting for 53% more than a typical international tourist. It is estimated that the domestic wellness tourists spends about 178% more in premium expenses than any other domestic tourist segment. North America led the global market in 2018 due to these two factors, primarily:

• Technological advancements – safer, more effective treatments
• Increasing number of new entrants in the medical spa industry – more demand and competition brings more marketing, more social media, more awareness

IMPORTANT Stats from Previous Years:

• Facial treatments dominated the service segment in 2018 and will maintain its position going forward due to increasing demand for minimally invasive aesthetic treatment procedures.
• On the other hand, the body shaping & contouring service segment is expected to witness the fastest CAGR over the next few years.
• North America dominated the medical spa market in 2018 in terms of revenue share pertaining to the technological advancements, and the increasing number of new entrants in the medical spa industry. [aka, more competition]
• Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the fastest-growing regional market from 2019 to 2025 owing to the presence of an already well-established beauty market.
• Asian spas are traditionally focused on the beauty aspect of wellness, however, in the past few years, such spas are expanding their services to meet the increasing demand for cosmetic alteration with procedures, such as body contouring, nonsurgical skin tightening, and scar revision.
• The industry is mostly fragmented but there are a few major players. Key industry participants include Chic la Vie Med Spa, Clinique La Prairie, Kurotel – Longevity Medical Center and Spa, Lanserhof Lans, The Orchard Wellness Resort, BIOVITAL Med Spa LLC, Allure MedSpa, and Longevity Wellness Worldwide.

Local Medical Spas have become increasingly competitive but fragmented at the same time as different offices focus on different procedures and demographics, depending on their location, expertise, staff and equipment. 

A Medical spa combines an aesthetic clinic and a day spa for providing non-surgical aesthetic medical services under the strict supervision of a licensed physician. Two different industries are combined at a Medspa, i.e. a relaxing and rejuvenating spa with the services found and performed at the doctor’s office.

The Medspa business model is getting more popular every day, it seems, as they provide aesthetic services under a qualified physician’s supervision. Practitioners at the Medspa must be skillful and licensed because only trained and professional hands can perform these aesthetic procedures. But they do not always have to be doctors – they can be Nurse Practitioners, or Physicians Assistants or trained and licensed Aestheticians.

The American Medspa Association reported that over 19,733 medical spas are open in the united states, and this number is increasing with every passing year. Americans Spent more than $18 billion on aesthetic treatments like Botox, fillers, laser hair removal, services of skin tightening, and facial rejuvenation. It is estimated that the North American aesthetic services market will reach $28 Billion by 2024 due to the increasing demand for Baby Boomers trying to retain their youth and stay beautiful.

This industry faced losses due to the outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) in 2021, and faced a decline of 7.7% in a single year alone. 

In the aesthetic industry, most successful Medspas are encompassing the following services: 

✔ Botox 

✔ Dermal fillers 

✔ Laser hair removal 

✔ Laser Resurfacing 

✔ RF-Skin tightening 

✔ Face thread lift 

✔ Nose thread lift or rhinoplasty 

✔ Lip Augmentation 

✔ HIFU for skin tightening 

✔ Facial services like; 

✔ Hydra facial 

✔ Photo facial 

✔ LED skin therapy 

✔ Vampire facial 

✔ Liquid nitrogen facial. 

✔ Mesotherapy or Micro-needling 

✔ PRP skin treatments

✔ Q-Switch/ Pico therapy 

✔ Breast lift. 

Here is a brief description of the most demanded services in Medspas. 

1. Lip Augmentation: Lip augmentation or lip enhancement is a beautifying procedure that gives your lips a brimful and plumper look and making them more attractive. Natural plump is given by expert dermatologists and aestheticians aiming to provide requested lip enhancement.

The first thing is to demonstrate the lip augmentation procedure to the customers by educating them about services and telling the mechanism working behind it. Also, physicians describe to patients about chemicals or substances involved and their mode and duration of action.

Inject able dermal fillers are used for lip augmentation. One of the most common filler used is hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is also known as hyaluronan, which is a natural substance already present in our body. This clear gooey substance is produced by the body and is present in the connective tissues of skin. The vital role of hyaluronic acid is to keep skin tissues moist and hydrated.

In Aesthetic clinics, a substance used for lip augmentation is obtained from rooster combs and is prepared in laboratories. Different hyaluronic acid products are used in aesthetic clinics. These all products are same in their mode of action, length of action, and cosmetic results. Hyaluronic acid products are Restylane L, and Restylane R. Other may include Juvederm Ultra, Juvederm volbella XC, Juvederm ultra plus, Belotero balance, Hylaform, Elevers, and Prevelle silk. 

2. Dermal Fillers: Fillers are Injectable preparations of soft tissues injected at different depths of skin to reduce facial wrinkles, volume to various areas of the face, and augmentation of facial features. Most fillers are constituted with hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring polysaccharide present in skin and cartilage. Other than hyaluronic acid, fillers include; 

✔ Calcium hydroxylapatite (CaHA) 

✔ Poly –L- lactic acid 

✔ Polymethylacrylate (PMMA) 

Restylane was the first hyaluronic acid filler approved by the US food and drug administration for cosmetic injections. These fillers act by rejuvenating facial skin,

reducing or eliminating wrinkles, enhancing lips, and replacing soft-tissue volume loss. It also improves volume at under eye spaces and contour jawline. 

3. Cool sculpting: Cool sculpting is a noninvasive procedure that utilizes the science of cryo lipolysis and fat freezing. This procedure targets stubborn fat cells and helps to eliminate fat under the chin and neck area. The cool mini applicator is designed to treat fats under your chin. Cool mini is suctioned in the underside of your chin, that will draw excess fat to the skin’s surface to target it easily.

This fat is then exposed to cold temperatures for about thirty to thirty-five minutes. Slight pressure is observed when the cool mini is removed. At the end of the procedure, a gentle massage of five minutes will be applied to the treated part of your chin. 

4. Face Thread Lift: Collagen is a protein that is present in the deeper layers of our skin. The purpose of collagen is to provide fullness to skin. It also helps skin maintain its tightness as we get old, the production rate of collagen drops which results in an 80% reduction in skin thickness.

This loss of volume and strength is a large factor in the appearance of weaker skin with wrinkles. As skin grows weaker, it will no longer support tissues adequately present at its undersides, resulting in low gravity pull and stretches. 

In the face, thread lift helps reduce skin looseness by hydrating and thickening and thickening and preventing it from worsening by providing its strength. 

In other words, face Thread lift is a progressive rejuvenation process for facial tissues. A patient who undergoes face thread lift procedure feels a remarkable improvement in tone, texture, and firmness. 

5. RF Skin tightening: Radiofrequency skin tightening (RF) is a new aesthetic treatment that has become very popular these days. It uses radiofrequency or RFenergy to heat the dermis and tighten the skin without damage to the top layer of the skin. Like laser and LED treatments, it uses radiofrequency to stimulate collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid production. 

In radiofrequency skin tightening, radio waves are used to stimulate the natural production of collagen and elastin for targeting loose skin of neck and face. It also reduces wrinkles and lines that develop at the forehead ,around the nose, and mouth.

6. HIFU Facelift: HIFU is high intensity focused ultrasound, a comparatively new ultrasound aesthetic procedure for skin tightening, face lifting, removal of scars, and it gives your face a new youthful and juvenile look. HIFU is considered as anon-intrusive and pain-free substitute for face lifting as it uses ultrasound energy to encourage the production of collagen, which results in skin firmness and tightness and gives an ultimate lift to your face. 

This treatment (HIFU) is approved by FDA (Food and Drug Administration) in 2009for brow lifts only. Further, its device got approved in 2014 to improve lines and wrinkles in the neck area. HIFU is considered a safe and effective way of treatment for a facelift, removal of scars, face tightening, and lifting against gravity as this treatment is not associated with surgery risks. And you can see apparent results infewmonths after the procedure is completely done. FDA has yet to approve off label usesof HIFU like body contouring, face lifting, face tightening, and facial rejuvenation. 

Strategies for the successful running of med spa business:

a. For the successful running of a Medspa, it is essential to start this business as an independent unit. It needs to have a separate business plan, profit &loss statements, and operating managers to run it differently, not as an extension of the doctor’s office. 

b. With conscientious efforts, owners and operators of Medspa should realize that this industry fits into a retail category like day spas. It has nothing to deal withinsurance providers, as this is different from the other medical markets. Thetraditional techniques imply on this business like business plan making, budget management, creation of goals, and monitoring of day to day operations. 

c. Operating managers need to track and measure everything to make projections and goals accordingly. 

d. A successful Medspa business needs to concentrate on a particular service at which they have expertise and competency. 

e. Medspas with effective selling techniques are considered the most successful as compared to the traditional medical setting. 

f. People working under the supervision of licensed specialized aestheticians or dermatologists must be knowledgeable about products and services. Incompetent personals would not be able to make money.

g. To make an aesthetic practice profitable and successful, the Medspa needs to have a scripted and rehearsed process in place to convert customers’ interests into sales. 

h. Staff must know precisely what is in demand and how to communicate when someone expresses interests, answers to queries and calls, to book appointments, and get callers at the door. 

i. Owners must have in place protocols about rules and regulations of the state to conduct the core of business after legal consultation with local health care attorneys. 

j. Legal requirements, including rules and regulations, govern by AmSpa that allows its members for access to one state legal summary. It is a list of commonly asked questions researched and prepared by skilled lawyers at Byrd Adatto law firm. This membership would help Medspa owners for the proper conduct of their business in solving solutions to various ambiguities like; 

✧ Who can be the owner of the med spa? 

✧ Is it required by the physician to be present physically while a nurse or practitioner is performing service? 

✧ Who can perform intense light devices or microdermabrasion? 

✧ Are lasers used in the facility subject to OSHA requirements? 

✧ What are HIPPA security and privacy rules? 

k. Medspa owners must participate in training seminars for the smooth openingandrunning of an excellent Medspa and to stay at the top of the industry’s latest trends. 

l. Medspa owners are advised to take advantage of legal consultation once per year with an aesthetic law firm. 

Outsourcing leads: Medspa owners should outsource some marketing process or lead generation to stimulate and capture interest in services to develop sales. New Business owners must realize that business growth can be a complicated and long term process, so one of the fundamental elements to grow a business is having access to a steady stream of sales leads. Outsourcing this lead generation will help Medspa owners to put their efforts in the right and focused direction and turn these leads into customers. 

[Shameless Plug: At FullonDigital.com, we have a Full On Digital service that can guarantee a certain number of leads in certain areas per month at a very reasonable cost. These will be high quality, interested clients that will call you directly for an appointment and we will track these leads for you. This is a high-end cutting program that focuses on MedSpa service leads and it WILL provide you with a 3X return on your investment. PLUS, we can also handle ALL of your Digital Marketing needs – website, social media, reputation, SEO, content, etc for a huge discount]. 

✧ Leads help in identifying your target customers too – demographics, services they want, etc. They will give you a plan to understand how a sales funnel can be created and how to reach target customers. This is to attract new customers through gifts, incentives, coupons, free cosmetic samples, and to convince Medspa owners for free retouches of services.

✧ Email marketing and email newsletters would also help cultivate a relationship with prospects through consistent communication. 

✧ Once you have leads in the system, you can use social media platforms to create conversations with prospective customers. This can be done by creating/building a Facebook page, twitter profile, LinkedIn page, Pinterest account, or a YouTubepage to attract and engage more customers’ aesthetic needs. We can help with all of this, if you need it.

We believe that; 

It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.”

Let’s face it, digital marketing for a MedSpa can be hard, and overwhelming. There are so many things that you are supposed to Focus on all the time – 

• Review Generation
• Website Design and Updates
• Social Media
• Social Media Advertising
• Leads
• Organic Ranking
• New Content
• PPC
• Maps Ranking, etc…

You just want to run your MedSpa, right, but you also need these things to be really successful?

Does the thought of hiring a staff or a separate Agency for ALL of these different things fill you with dread, overwhelm you, make you glaze over?

Let us help.

We have been in this business for over 20 years, have a fantastic track record of success, and we can help you decide what is the best way to move your business to the next level without breaking the bank.

We will discuss your business, your marketing efforts thus far, what has worked and not worked, where you are and where you want to be, and how you can get there while working LESS, not more.

We will provide you with a FREE Strategy Session to determine the best way forward for your MedSpa. Where your money will be best spent now, where the long term investment should be, how we can help you REDUCE your dependence on agencies (like us), and provide a road map for moving forward. 

If that is us, we will provide you with an offer for our services. If not, we will provide some options for you on how to accomplish what you truly desire in your business.

If you prefer to try it all on your own, that is fine too, no hard feelings.

Reach out today and let us know that you would like to schedule a Strategy Session with one of our senior marketing experts so they can help you.