Transcription
Welcome everyone to the Medspa Accelerator podcast, brought to you by Everwell Marketing, the go-to resource so you can get the latest hacks and best practices to market and grow a profitable medical aesthetics practice. My name is Marip, and I am obsessed with all things business, marketing, operations, numbers, and helping you grow and take your medspa to the next level. This is the Medspa Accelerator podcast, season 2. All right. All right. What's going on everybody? We're back with another episode. This time, a little bit more relaxed. What are you drinking, babe?
Yes. Oh, well, I don't know how many of you guys know, but I am actually gluten intolerant. Um, and I've been like gluten-free since 2019, which is not that long ago, but for me, it's a big deal. I mean, it's already been 3 years. Yes. I mean, it's a long time to not have any like traditional bread. I know. Yes. Yes. Uh, and it was a huge lifestyle change for sure. So, I I'm drinking a gluten-free beer, which is really hard to find like a good beer. Like, mainly it's just like also, we actually found this like artisanal like little shop in um where my parents are from um or where they're living right now. And it's a gluten-free beer and it's And it actually tastes like real beer, which is pretty awesome. Yes. Yes. is I mean I would say it's close to like a Dos Equis. Nice. I'm drinking Flying Embers. Flying Embers. And it's a pineapple chili. This is a hard kombucha. Zero sugar, zero carbs. So grab your drinks. And uh today we're going to be and join us. Yeah. Come sit with us. And today we're going to be talking about memberships. Memberships.
And I was I was specifically going to say a way to build your monthly reoccurring revenue through memberships. Because this is I get holy grail. Yeah. I like to say that that memberships or any kind of monthly reoccurring business model is like the holy grail of any kind of business just because it just takes so much pressure off of just being in business. You know, the fact that like you have to you have a leaky bucket and every month you have to fill it with water and then it just goes out. You know what I mean? like it just leaks all at the bottom, right? So unpredictable. So unpredictable. If you can plug those holes with a monthly reoccurring model, oh my god, it just it just takes the weight off your shoulders. Business is a lot less stressful because you already know how much revenue you're going to be that is going to be coming in every single month. So today that's what we're going to be talking about how you can build a monthly reoccurring model through memberships in your practice. And uh it's going to be fun. So let's dive in.
Yeah. I mean, we have this conversation again and again with clients of like they want a little bit more productivity. They want a little bit more predictability in their business. And when it comes to membership, they're just overwhelmed. They don't know how to get started, what structure to do. They just get so overwhelmed with how where do I start? How do I do this? So, in this episode, we actually are going to talk first about the benefits because we all want to know and we want to give it get you inspired to actually sit down and do this for yourself and for your business, but then we want to talk a little bit more about the different structures, how you can go about it, how to market it, and how to actually start selling these. For sure. Yeah. So, let's do it. What are the main reasons? I mean, I already talked about one, which is a really big one. Stable cash flow. Yes. Stable cash flow. Yes. What else you got? That's that's number one. Uh next to that would be increase lifetime value. We talk again and again about how much is going to cost you to acquire one client. So what if that client could be potentially X your business, right? Yeah. So I mean I going back to like LTV. So it's like increased LTV. So you know you're already paid to acquire this client, but then you're looking at how much is this client worth to you, right? And so you're always looking at ways to increase your lifetime patient value, right? And so in this case, having a membership plan or some kind of way to, you know, continue to get this person to produce revenue for you is going to increase your LTV, which is just going to, you know, increase your profit when it comes to your acquisition costs. Definitely. Um, it you also get fast direct feedback from members. And I love this because sometimes we don't know where we're going with our business or if like we are actually doing a service that our clientele actually wants. So this would be a great way to have this like more direct feedback from them because you are having a closer relationship with them, right? Or at the end of the day that's also what you want to make sure that you have with them. Yeah. And so I think one of the ways that you can build kind of a I don't know if we still have this in there or not, but in regards to creating a community, right? So, it's like when you have this membership program, you can create a community. For example, we have a client that uh has a Facebook group with all the all their members and it's a great way to build a community, but at the same time, going back to what Billy was saying, it's a great way to get feedback um with what you're doing and you know, you can really kind of establish some really good relationships there. Yeah. If you're thinking about adding another service or doing a special or doing an event, like you can just get so much information out of polls and stuff like that. That's super cool with like Facebook groups and stuff. Yeah. And building a community, I think it's great, too, because you start building those relationships. You can reactivate those clients in a sense because they're already members, so they're constantly active, but reactivating to like buy a bigger package or get something different or something new. So, upselling. Upselling. Yeah.
Also access to exclusive data which I think kind of goes hand in hand with this uh and additional revenue opportunities, right? So making sure that like I was saying like maybe you are adding a different like another service to what you're currently doing and so um you want to make sure that they are the first ones to know but also some sort of referral program. You already have somebody that of course loves what you do and your services because they have a membership, so it'll it's going to be way easier for them to refer to their friends and get more um clientele out of that. For sure. Yeah, that's awesome. So, next to that, do you have any other reasons why? I think for me the reoccurring revenue just solidifies it. I don't need other other reasons why. It's just that's for me that's that's the one and only. Yeah, that's that's the only like inspiration you need. Yes. Yes, I agree. I just wanted to like give more of a of a picture, right? That there's just so many other ways that you can really like pay attention to this. So, uh the next thing would be like what are some of the structures for membership that work? And um this is where like I think like most clients get stuck because they don't know what to do. So, the best advice that I've gotten from this is keep it simple. Mhm. Because if you start complicating it, if you start adding too much to it, creating all these packages and like all these things and add-ons and whatnot, yes, it might look appealing for a little bit, but then as you it just becomes so complicated to explain it to everybody and you can't please everybody. Yeah. So, it just gets more complicated to market and to sell for sure. So keeping it simple, making it streamlined I think is the best way to go about it.
Yeah. I mean I think 100 uh, you know, I agree 100% and I think sorry. Yeah. And if we can I mean an easy one that you could easily like an easy one that you could quickly implement would be we have some medspa clients that implement like a beauty bank. And uh that's just kind of like a savings account. It's a beauty savings account, right? And so every month, you know, the client can choose how much money is being withdrawn from their account, $100, $200 bucks, etc. And then that basically gets added into their beauty savings account. Yeah. And uh whenever they come into their office into the practice, they can then just see, oh yeah, how much money do I have in my savings account? Okay, I'm going to $500 bucks. Okay, sounds good. I I'll use that towards my, you know, filler or my Botox, etc. Right? And so that's like a really great one that you can just easily implement. Super simple. Super simple. Uh, super simple memberships. And so I think another one were you going to say super simple songs? Yes. Because Luca has been listening a lot to super simple songs which we actually really enjoy listening. And then we have stuck in our heads at 2 in the morning. Oh my gosh. And so the another good one I mean another example where I think you could just go and figure things out. Mhm. And I guess some advice is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Yes, you could just go to any other medspa website and see if they have memberships and then you can just do the same thing. Like I mean, you know, if you want to look at a competitor, that's fine, but you could look at people that are another state. You know what I mean? Like the the the the biggest thing here, guys, is not to complicate it. And at the end of the day, just pick something. Pick anything and start running with it. And then you'll get feedback and you can change it and you can change it. You can always change it. You can you're not married to it. It's not black or white. You know, it's something that you can will continue to evolve and change as you go through it. And so I don't think you should feel cuz I've not when we've spoken to clients about it, they get a lot of times they'll get overwhelmed about trying to make a decision and it's like a big thing. Just pick something and just start, you know, don't over complicate it. Just do things and and you can keep evolving it and changing it as you see fit and as you learn. Yes. Because that's the biggest thing. Yes. Exactly. And I was going to say at the end of the day, you just want to go with what makes the most sense to people and so what do they appreciate the most? Like is it maybe like uh like does it make sense in a financial like point of view for them? So are they saving money? Then hey, that's a no-brainer, right? They're going to want the membership because at the end of the day, they're saving money in whatever uh service they're getting already. So, uh one of the a great way of going about it is like, hey, if you're planning on coming back, if you're planning on doing this treatment again and again, then it just makes sense for you to get the membership because you're going to save money or is it more that they appreciate saving time? Maybe this they want they're a professional, they have like they're just doing this during their lunch hour. Then does it make sense for them to uh have like VIP treatment like you can see them in a short amount of time? They can be one of the first ones. They can you can actually like extend your hours for them or something. So, it just depends on who you're catering and what makes sense to them. What do they appreciate the most that you can really leverage and then create that around them. For sure. Yeah, I think that's a definitely a great way to go about it. If you're a dentist or an orthodontist. I mean, I think uh dentists, we've seen a lot of them implement a membership program around just dental cleanings, right? Or and then they maybe they get a special price on dental cleanings. They'll also potentially get special discounts for maybe bigger services or packages, whether it's implants, veneers, you know, uh crowns, like whatever it might be. And so that's a really easy membership program that you can implement and it's $99 a month or whatever it ends up being. But you know that's some again you start building that reoccurring revenue. And for orthodontists, uh, interestingly enough, we have seen some orthos implement a membership program in a unique way where they ultimately say, hey, if you sign up for a membership program or you start braces with us, you you also uh get into our membership program and basically you'll have free retainers for life or you know, you'll basically have insurance on your treatment. So if you ever uh lose or you know if your smile gets shifted shifted or what you know yeah uh you can come back and you can you know we'll treat you for free or etc. Right. Teeth move teeth move all the time and and think about how you know everybody pays for insurance and they're paying for something that hasn't happened. You know what I mean? like there. So, it's risk like you know how you know you just you want to feel comfortable with your purchase and it just makes sense and and like I said I mean those are some easy things but like go and see what other people are doing. Mhm. Again, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. It the answers are already out there if you just do a little bit of research. And that's all I did. I just looked at what other people were doing and that's how we're making these recommendations to you today, you know, and these are some of the most successful businesses in the market, like in the industry. Yes. Um, and you know, you we should definitely model them. Yeah. Every time we bring you an episode, we do our research, we see what others are doing, like we see from our own experiences what's working, what's not. So, do the same for your business, right? It does take a little bit of time, but it's so worth it. Mhm.
So now the next thing that I feel like people get stuck with is like how to set the price. And uh so okay fine, I have my structure. Now how much should I sell this for? Like what makes sense for my for are my people and my business. Do you have any recommendations? I mean, just pick a price. No, I'm kidding. Uh and so I mean like again like if you're looking at other people and you're modeling after what they're doing, then you can just do something that makes sense. But I mean, of of course, you also have to take into consideration the services that you're offering. What are your costs? Yeah. Um, and then your your area because you might not be in an area that is as affluent as some of these other people or whatever it might be. And so there's definitely some context that comes into play. Yeah. But I think if you can just look at what your expenses are for whatever these it is of these services and you can just do something that is competitive and that is maybe you do a five or 10% discount on whatever service and as long as like your margins are still there, then I think it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Another way of see like once you kind of start setting that price, you want to also look about like how can you create goals for yourself? And we we had another episode where we talked about like your financials and how that could be a road map to success and we talked about you know how to set goals for your business. So, we actually have this one client, shout out, you know who you are. Uh that actually uh is huge. Like she wanted to create the memberships so that she could pay for her rent. That was her goal. She's like, I want to sell enough memberships so that I don't have to be worrying about my rent, right? Which is a huge thing for the overhead. Now, she reached that. And so her next goal was now I want to sell enough memberships to pay at least half of my um my people's salary. So the first part of the month, which is also a huge relief, right? For sure. And so her next goal and they already reached that, which is amazing. Now her next goal is to be able to pay full salary like the entire month. And so that really starts giving you numbers about how many memberships she needs to sell and for how much. And if it's an easy sale, then you know you're doing either something really good or you can actually increase your prices. Yeah. And I and and I think this goes back down to supply and demand, right? Um and I've been actually looking at this a lot from like a product price standpoint. You know, at the end of the day, when you go to a grocery store and apples are not selling, what does the grocery store do? They put the apples on sale, right? And so I think a lot, like I've said before, I think a lot of people overthink this. Look at what your costs are. Set a price. And then and then look at product market fit, right? Are people buying it or not? Right? And if they're not, find out why, right? And if it's a price issue, then like adjust your prices accordingly. And you I'm not saying that you have to give the same stuff and keep the same price or lower your price. You can strip away things from a package and you can lower your price. And if you start getting like if then you test it again, right? Take it back to the market, see how the market responds, they start buying. If you notice that let's say 90% of people or 100% of people, you pitch it to them and they're saying yes, well then in that case, I'm going to raise the price because, you know, I already know that at the end of the day, right, it's again supply and demand, right? And so we've actually done this with a little side hustle we have. We put one of our cars up on Turo cuz our car was just sitting there and I'm like, man, if I can just get our car to pay for our insurance, like for its insurance, then that's great, right? And it's already done that. But I was I had already considered we the car was getting booked the entire month. And I'm like, well, if it's getting booked, let's raise the price, right? And so there's demand. Yeah, there's demand. Let's raise the price. And so that's how everything goes. Gas prices, electricity, you know, that's what it is, why it is what it is, right? Um, but again like you can implement those same strategies for yourself and leverage them and go work. Yeah. And I think like you know when we say this to clients, they again sometimes they get overwhelmed because will it be some work? Will it get a little complicated at times because you have some people in one structure and then some other people in another. Yes. But at the end of the day, you won't know until you start doing it. M and once you crack it, then hey, how long are you planning on being in business, right? And so once you crack it, it's just a matter of like keeping it that way as long as possible and guess what? It'll change again because everything keeps changing. So might as well just go through the really tough part at the beginning, act fast, make quick decisions, and then keep on rolling within. For sure. And if you really want to know, this client that is talking about, they do the beauty bank thing. So if you want to get up and running, that's honestly one of the easiest ways ways that you can go about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is they are amazing. Um, okay. So, now next thing is how to actually market a membership. I have my mark my membership structure. I have my price. I'm ready to roll. How do I market it? Should I go to a marketing agency and start advertising it? Yes. I No. I mean, I think one of the easiest ways that you can sell this is like you already have people walking through the door. Um, talk to them about it. Tell them that you have this membership. I think I I think we've even previously did an episode about this where we went to this massage place and we were totally sold. Like if that lady would have told us, would you want to get a membership? We would have said yes, and they they just didn't ask us. They didn't call to action. And so you can if you literally just start telling people, people will be interested. If they love your place, they'll be interested. And so I think that's one easy way to go about it. But when it comes to actually advertising it, um, it's a little hard to advertise for memberships. So, in this case, I would say don't, you know, like you can hire an agency to do a version of this advertising, but this is more of an upsell. It's kind of like come and like it's hard to sell somebody on a membership when they've never been to your practice, you know? And so, it's kind of like taste and see, right? Like you have to taste and see first. It's like you're a grocery again going back to the grocery store thing. That's when they have these little samples and they give you these samples, right? And then you buy the thing. And so it's the same thing with the the membership softwares, you know, like Netflix, like they have trials. You want to make sure that they try it first. And so even if you don't have like a trial of the membership, per se, you want them to try out your service, your experience. And I think a way that we've did it one time for a client was we took a service that was within that membership and we advertised that service specifically and then we had a value ladder attached to it. Meaning that once the patient came in and got the service done, let's say it was $1.99 to get a facial done. Well, we said, "Hey, well, we have a really great membership going on right now where you can get the facial instead of pay $1.99 today, it's $149. So, you save $50 and you can get these facials every month." And I'm like, "Oh, that's a no-brainer. Yeah, I'll do I'll save $50 and I can get this done every month." And if they feel great after doing that, then they're going to say yes. Right. And so, that was just an easy way for us to advertise a low-tier service, get people through the door, try it out, get to know the practice, etc., and then upsell them to a membership. Yes.
So, that comes like hand in hand with my next point, which is you need to let your staff know about these. You need to train them in a way that they are ready to talk about the membership and how to sell this membership in a way that is genuine, right? It's not about just just about like the hardcore sale, but it's like it makes sense for your people. It makes sense for them to get a better service with the membership. So, why not, right? Exactly. And it's kind of what you were talking about about the massage place. Like we went to get a massage. We were so tired after I don't know working so hard probably. And we got out of there like so like refreshed. Like I felt euphoric. I remember it was like Yes. Yes. And it was like if they would have told us like hey, if you get a membership, you can get this like every single month, it's like it makes more sense financially, blah blah blah. Then we would have said yes. But nobody asked us. And that's the thing, right? Like you, especially you as a business owner, you're setting everything up for your your success for your business. If you don't tell your people and they don't sell it, then it's for nothing. For sure. So, you need to train your people. Let them know. Yes. So, take all that back, start implementing it today. Take action. Don't overthink it. And let's do it. So, thank you for listening today, everyone. Hopefully, you found this insightful. Comment below. Let us know if you have any questions or anything of the sort. Listen to us on YouTube. Check us out on all the podcasting platforms that you prefer audio. And we'll see you all next time. Next one. Bye-bye.