Industries · Aesthetics and skin
You cannot advertise the treatment everyone searches for
Botulinum toxin is a prescription-only medicine, and advertising a prescription-only medicine to the public is prohibited. Your best-known treatment is one you are not permitted to promote, which changes what a website has to do.
The problem
The channel you would reach for first is closed
Every agency that pitches an aesthetic clinic proposes advertising. Most of what they propose would be advertising a prescription-only medicine to the public, which is not permitted, and the clinic finds that out either from its own compliance conscience or from a complaint.
What remains is search, reputation and the people who already know you. That makes the website and the follow-up the channel here rather than a support for the channel, which is the opposite of how most clinics treat them.
The other problem is timing. Aesthetic enquiries arrive at nine at night, from somebody scrolling, deciding something they have been thinking about for months. If nothing answers until Tuesday, that decision has been made somewhere else.
What actually works
What moves the needle for aesthetic clinics.
Rank for the consultation, not the drug
People search for the concern, the area, the price and what to expect. Every one of those is answerable without advertising a medicine, and together they are most of the intent.
Answer the nine o'clock enquiry
The missed-call text back and the follow-up are worth more in this niche than most, because the buying moment is late, emotional and short.
Wear JCCP or Save Face openly
In a field with no single regulator, an accreditation a patient can check is the strongest trust signal you have, and plenty of your competitors do not hold one.
The rules you work inside
What is true of aesthetic clinics and nothing else.
This is the part a generic agency does not know, and it is the part that decides whether the marketing is legal, let alone effective.
Who regulates you
No single statutory regulator. The JCCP register and Save Face accreditation are the recognised marks, Ofqual Level 7 is the qualification benchmark for injectables, and CQC registration applies where a regulated activity is carried on. A government licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England has been consulted on and is being brought in.
What you cannot advertise
Botulinum toxin is prescription-only and cannot be advertised to the public. No offers, no before-and-afters used as promotion, no naming it in an advert.
The software you already run
Pabau, Consentz, Aesthetic Nurse Software, Phorest.
What an appointment is worth
£150 to £400 a treatment on a three to four month repeat for toxin. High lifetime value, entirely retention-driven.
When you are busy
January, the April to June wedding run-up, and November before the party season.
The one lever
Consultation conversion, because you cannot buy demand for the headline treatment and enquiries arrive out of hours.
Regulatory positions change, and two of these families are changing now. I confirm the current position before writing your pages rather than copying what a competitor has up.
What you get
The same six things, pointed at your problem.
The package does not change by niche. What changes is what it is set up to do: which follow-up runs, on what interval, and what the website is built to be found for.
£297 a month. No build fee, no minimum term, live in 14 days.
- Your website
- Missed call text back
- Review funnel
- Lead follow-up
- All-in-one inbox
- Business phone
Questions
What aesthetic clinics ask me.
Can my website mention Botox at all?
There is a distinction between advertising a prescription-only medicine and providing information to somebody already asking. It is a real line and it moves, so I build to the current position and tell you where it sits rather than guessing. If you want something on the site I think crosses it, I will say so.
What about before-and-after photographs?
They are treated as promotional in a way that catches a lot of clinics out for prescription-only treatments. There is more freedom around treatments that are not prescription-only, and I will be specific per treatment rather than giving you one blanket rule.
Does that mean paid ads are useless for us?
Not useless, restricted. You can advertise consultations, skin treatments and the clinic itself. You cannot advertise the medicine. Anybody promising you toxin ads at volume has not read the rules.
Should I put prices on the site?
For consultations and for non-prescription treatments, generally yes. It filters out the price-shoppers before they take up a consultation slot.
Is licensing coming in?
A licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England has been consulted on and is being introduced. I will not state a settled position on the site for something still moving, and neither should you.
Thirty minutes, and you will know if it is worth it.
No obligation, and nothing to pay to have the conversation.