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Several months ago, I had a conversation with a med spa owner that has stayed with me. This was a small, new practice, and they were really struggling. They weren’t profitable, they were draining their personal savings, and they were in an incredibly challenging situation. When you find yourself in a position where there is absolutely no wiggle room to invest financially, you have to make up for that lack of capital with labor hours—working your butt off to find creative ways to acquire new clients with minimal risk.
During that conversation, I made a recommendation that often causes a visceral reaction in the aesthetics community: I recommended they use Groupon.
Now, I understand the aversion to Groupon, especially for those of you who are established, successful practice owners. This med spa was trying to position themselves as a luxury provider, and they felt that running deep discounts for “Groupon patients” was below them. But the reality was that they needed a way to generate momentum quickly without financial risk.
Even though you have to “sift through a lot of dirt to find the gold” when it comes to patient quality on Groupon, it is still a viable way to get new people in the door. While many will just come for the one-time deal, there is a catch rate—some will stay and spend more money.
But this conversation sparked a deeper thought about pricing strategy and why there is such a divide in the industry. I want to share my thoughts on why price manipulation is such a powerful tool for growth and why even the largest, most profitable med spas in the country still use it.
Price as a Scalable Differentiator
I’ve talked to plenty of boutique med spas that have a massive aversion to Groupon. Yet, on the flip side, I see some of the biggest, most successful, multi-location, highly profitable med spas running Groupons every day. We have clients that fit this exact description.
The question is: Why do they feel comfortable running Groupons when boutique practices don’t?
The answer lies in the fact that price is scalable as a differentiator.
If you are a boutique med spa winning on reputation and patient experience, you are essentially having to do that at a one-to-one rate. I frequently use the quote, “Action changes attitude faster than attitude changes action.” If you want to position yourself as a luxury provider, the only way to truly develop a reputation that sets you apart is through the actual interaction. A client has to experience your office, your providers, and your results to know, like, and trust you.
This means every single time you establish that high-end relationship, you have to do it one person at a time. It is a one-to-one interaction.
The Advantage of Being Price Competitive
The advantage of being price competitive is that it scales without any one-to-one interaction. If I run a really good deal or a compelling promotion, I can reach people at scale who are price sensitive—at least on that initial visit—without having to do anything to establish the relationship beforehand.
There are three primary things that impact a consumer’s purchase decision:
- Reputation
- Convenience
- Price
If I can manipulate the price, it’s a differentiator I can put on paper that everyone can clearly and visibly see at scale. This is why you see a lot of successful med spas leaning into price manipulation to establish relationships with new clients. It makes the marketing message an “easy pitch.” If our Dysport or Botox unit costs are visibly less than the competitors, it’s an easy argument for why someone should choose us over an alternative.
The Boutique Advantage vs. Large-Scale Reality
When you are trying to differentiate based on reputation and experience, you really can’t do it effectively through marketing alone. That reputation is only anchored through the actual interaction with clients.
Large, successful med spas—those with 7, 8, 20, 50, or even 100 locations—are generally very price competitive. While they certainly benefit from economies of scale, they also know that it’s nearly impossible to maintain a reputation-based differentiation at that size without being price competitive. You don’t see many 100-location chains that aren’t aggressively priced.
The advantage you have as a boutique provider is that you can create that differentiated experience in a way a massive chain cannot. But you must recognize that differentiating on reputation alone, without price being part of the equation, is inherently more challenging from a marketing standpoint.
The Recipe for Success: The Hybrid Strategy
I don’t believe price and reputation are mutually exclusive. In fact, the best practices we work with use both of these strategies in tandem.
The “Winning” Strategy Works Like This:
- Front End: Use price manipulation for new patient acquisition. Create a really good price point for initial visits to “tip the scales” in your favor and break the tie when a prospect is weighing options.
- Back End: Once they are in the office, provide an exceptional, stand-out experience. This one-to-one interaction creates the reputation that keeps them coming back and eventually paying a premium price point.
Is it easier to retain clients if you remain at the lower end of the price spectrum? Yes. But I know for most boutique owners, that isn’t the goal. If you want the best of both worlds—meaning a high volume of “at-bats” and growth opportunities combined with high-quality patients paying premium rates—this hybrid approach is your recipe for success.
Price manipulation makes you an attractive option when people are weighing alternatives on paper. Reputation makes you the permanent choice once they’ve met you.
Final Thoughts
This was an interesting observation I wanted to share because price is such an easy lever to use in your marketing messaging, whereas reputation is a much more challenging thing to project to someone who has never been to your practice.
If you have additional thoughts on this or want to share your experience with pricing strategies, feel free to leave a comment.
Partner With Med Spa Magic Marketing
This post was brought to you by Med Spa Magic Marketing. We help med spas and aesthetics practices grow through more effective, data-driven marketing strategies.
If you are looking for a new agency or just getting into Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads for the first time, I would love to show you why we are different. We offer a 1.5-hour planning session where I will outline a specific marketing plan for your business and give you all the blueprints we would implement if we were to work together.
You can take those plans and use them on your own, hire someone else to execute them, or choose to work with us. We don’t hold anything back on that strategy call because we want you to have total confidence in your marketing investment moving forward.To schedule your session, visit medspamagicmarketing.com.
