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If you want to market your aesthetics clinic more effectively and grow your business, you need to follow the seven essential customer journey steps.
These steps apply to every customer journey in every industry – they’re not unique to the aesthetics industry. But that means they’re tried and tested again, and again, and again.
They are the steps that every customer takes when they’re considering buying something. Anything. Any service or product. Any treatment or package.
When you understand them, and know how to use them to attract more potential clients and deliver a better experience to each of them, your clinic is certain to succeed.
So here they are – the seven essential customer journey steps guaranteed to grow your business:
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Table of Contents
1. Make your local area AWARE of your clinic
The start of the customer journey is an obvious one. Before your prospects can even think about buying any treatments from you, they need to know you exist.
You need to build awareness in your local area, announcing who you are and what you do to as many people as you can. You’ll want to shout about your new clinic (or your existing one) – without being too ‘in your face’ and get people to take note of your name.
How? Build a strong brand and advertise in as many places as you can, on social media, on Google and in real-life locations in your town.
2. Grab your audience’s INTEREST
Once you’ve made your target audience aware of your clinic, you need to grab their attention and keep their interest. They might see your name, they might notice a new clinic has just opened… but then they’re looking at something else.
Our attention span is short, so you need to use your marketing to make your potential customers really interested in what you have to say.
How? Pick a problem that many of your clients face. Poor, oily skin for example. Talk to your prospects about that pain point, tell them you understand, and suggest you have a solution.
3. Build a DESIRE in your prospects
That hint to your target audience that you have something that can help with a challenge they face every day is the start of the next step in the customer journey. You’re giving them something they need, something they really want.
Building that desire for your treatments and services is all about sharing the types of content your prospective clients want to see. Before and after images, success stories, and explanations about the amazing results your packages can provide are all very powerful.
How? Instead of talking about what your treatments involve, use your content to paint a picture about how your approach can change their lifestyle for the better.
4. Get that potential client to ACT
Step four of the customer journey is one of the most difficult. Lots of your prospects will spend time interacting with your brand, reading your posts on social media and seeing what you’re all about… as long as they don’t need to do anything.
Humans are lazy by nature, so getting them to act is a challenge. But with the right messaging, and the right incentives, it’s not too hard. Build on the desire you’ve generated in your prospects and ask them – outright – if they want to make that desire a reality.
How? Ask your prospects: ‘Do you want to transform your skin and leave your face wrinkle free?’ Then tell them exactly what to do: click, call, book, email etc. A discount or incentive is often very helpful at this stage too – a free consultation, 10% off your first treatment or another irresistible offer.
5. CONVERT your prospective client into a paying customer
When you’ve convinced your prospective clients that they want a treatment from you, and they’ve already acted by booking a consultation or sharing their email address, you’re well on your way to success.
They’ve already made the big decision to act, now it’s simply a case of walking them through lots of little decisions and making sure they don’t change their mind.
How? Make sure your clinic has a simple, streamlined onboarding process – supported by clinic management software like Pabau – that makes it quick and easy for clients to go through any registration, setup and pre-treatment checks.
6. RETAIN your new clients for repeat treatments
Now you’ve done all the hard work, you might think you can relax here. You’ve got a new paying client, job done. But the retention stage is one of the biggest and most important in the customer journey.
It’s much easier to sell to existing clients than it is to attract new ones, so give this section as much attention as others (if not more). If you put the effort in here to keep that new client buying your services and treatments as often as possible, you’ll get much more value from all your marketing.
How? Make sure you have an active client database that you engage with regularly, sending emails, updates and offers to at least once a month. You could even use software like Pabau to easily set up and manage a loyalty programme for your clients.
7. Encourage your loyal customers to ADVOCATE for your clinic
The final stage of the customer journey is all about using your loyal customers to your advantage. It focuses on making your clients your cheerleaders, your advocates.
They’re your biggest asset, because they know all about your treatments, your clinic and all the amazing benefits of your services. You’ll want to get them talking about their results and their experiences online and offline, sharing reviews, posting pictures and talking to friends and family.
How? Set up a referral program (Pabau can do this seamlessly) and use it to ask your existing clients to recommend as many of their friends and family as possible.
Ready to grow your aesthetics business?
Lots of aesthetic clinics will focus on different stages of the customer journey, but very few will look at the whole journey.
If you can focus on every stage individually, and tie the whole journey together so your clients are looked after at every step, you’ll elevate yourself from all your competition and be one of the most sought after clinics in your area.
And if you’re looking for more tips on how to market your aesthetics clinic this year, our latest ebook is packed with 14 must-know strategies.
