Covid-19: How to keep your Aesthetic Business Afloat

The need to go Virtual as an aesthetic practitioner

Starting a business is no easy feat and maintaining its growth while also remaining in the loop with constant innovation is even more of a challenge, let alone when battling with a pandemic which has led to many businesses being shut down for safety reasons, precipitating a huge increase in unemployment levels and drastically affecting the global economy.

Co-Founder of Derma Institute Academy, Dr. Firhaas Tukmachi urges aesthetic practitioners to adapt virtual consultations. “Forging ahead is, a must in order to keep businesses afloat. There has been an observed trend of industries taking a huge advantage of digital technology to enhance their reach and availability. It is time we follow their lead,” he says.

“The need for aesthetic businesses to occupy their own share of the digital space is now no longer an option but a necessity for continued survival and growth. To many however, it is not very clear as to how they may go about this, “ Dr. Tukmachi adds.

7 Creative Steps to Digitize your Aesthetic Business

Derma Institute has gathered a few steps you can take to effectively go virtual and utilize online resources for the benefit of your business in the short and long term:

1. Consider the various pain points of your clients and come up with specific offers that will solve each problem

What services can you offer your clients? Remember that this service has to solve a problem for your clients.
It may be helpful to review your best-selling services before the pandemic at about the same time the previous year and focus on offering those.
Also consider giving incentives, complimentary or added value treatments in order to increase the attractiveness of existing services before you reopen business.

2. Institute a system for virtual appointments for your aesthetic business

Tools such as appointment scheduling apps and booking software can be used to schedule consultations with your potential and existing customers.
Good examples include:

• Acuity Scheduling — suitable for customer-facing solutions.
• Calendly — which allows people book by themselves.
• Zoom — a popular app for video consultations. It also allows meetings to be recorded.

3. Reach out to your existing clients

Contact your existing customer base using a concise email strategy to create awareness about your new offer. The email marketing series should include the identified pain point, the proposed offer, what it entails and how they can sign up for it.
Items to increase your email offer conversion include a clear call to action and the mention of limited availability of spaces to create a sense of urgency.

4. Generate and engage prospects

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. have tons of active users. Facebook, with over 2 billion active users globally and about 41million of them in the United Kingdom alone, is the most cost-effective and fastest way to reach your ideal customer.
Facebook also allows you target your ads to a specific audience, and you should take advantage of this, ideally keeping things simple – focusing on age, gender and location.

5. Design your consultation script to keep things streamlined

At the beginning of your consultation, let your clients know what to expect during and at the end. Understand their problems and make relevant enquiries about them. This is not much different from the physical consultation process.
After you both have come to an understanding, let them know what treatments are available to them and if they’d like to sign up immediately or take some time to decide, in which case you can obtain permission to send them reminders.

6. Create a consultation presentation and guide your customers through it

This is useful as it serves as a sort of first point of call for new customers and can also be a one – off thing that can generate leads on autopilot.
In the recorded presentation, give your clients insight into your aesthetic practice, your expertise and journey so far. Storytelling is an art and you can locate useful online resources about it.
You should mention your choice of products and what informs them, particular problems a client is struggling with and your proposed solution. Finally, talk about your pricing, the treatment package it covers and how they can book in.

7. Remember to follow up!

Many sales experts agree on one thing – “The fortune is in the follow-up.” Through follow-up, you can sell the same treatment to a client several times, sell a different kind or even upsell to them.
Effective ways to follow up include concise and well targeted emails, regular content via blogging or social media engagement, regular consultations, among others.
Remember to make the follow-up process an automated one and possibly even delegate it to allow you focus on the more creative aspect of your business.

Derma Institute is UK’s leading high quality aesthetic training provider, providing comprehensive aesthetic training to health professionals (Doctors, Dentists, Nurse, Pharmacists, and others), that span a wide range of courses including Botox training and Dermal filler training courses which uniquely feature intensive, practical, hands-on training on live models.

Interested in learning more about Derma Institute’s aesthetic training courses for pharmacists? Visit our Botox training and Dermal filler training page for more details.