Is your monthly text message campaign generating just hundreds of dollars? If you’re only sending appointment reminders instead of strategic promotional texts, you’re missing out on significant revenue.
"If you're not sending text messages, and I'm not just talking about appointment reminders, but promotional texts, event texts, new treatment texts, contests... you are leaving revenue on the table. It really is that simple,"
says med spa marketing expert Katlin Cauffman.
Let’s dive into the proven SMS marketing best practices that can help increase not just your open rates (which are naturally high with text messaging) but more importantly, your conversion rates on your next aesthetic text promotion.
1. Make It Super Easy for Clients to Take Action
The foundation of successful text campaigns is removing friction from the customer experience:
- Two-way communication – Many EMR and scheduler systems only offer one-way texting. Your platform needs to allow clients to respond directly to your messages.
- Include purchase links – Add links that let clients purchase immediately or schedule appointments with a simple click.
- Be responsive – Have your team ready to reply quickly when clients respond.
"We had a client that put their Black Friday promotions on e-commerce this year, and they generated an extra $30,000 in revenue compared to what they did last year. Their promotions were not that different, but because they made it so simple for people to take action, it absolutely exploded."
2. Prepare Your Team to Handle Responses
When promotional texts go out, your team needs to be ready to engage with interested clients immediately.
Cauffman warns:
"I can't tell you how many times I've seen text promos go out—they do all this work to create graphics and great copy and decide what the offers are going to be—and then people want to give them business, and it takes them over a day to get back to them. That's not how to do it"
Put yourself in the patient’s mindset and prepare your team to answer questions and overcome objections. Keep explanations simple and accessible—”keep it simple stupid” as Cauffman puts it.
3. Identify Your Brand Early in Messages
Make your text messages immediately recognizable by leading with your brand name.
Cauffman advises:
"I challenge you to go back through your text messages during Black Friday and look at all the different promos that you received. What you're going to find is all of those large brands, those national retailers, are putting their brand name or their business, colon, and then their offer."
This approach helps clients quickly identify who the message is from in notification previews. It’s also more effective than the increasingly outdated practice of starting with “Hey [First Name],” especially since carriers sometimes mix up first and last name values.
4. Include Graphics or Images
Text messages with visuals stand out and create more engagement:
- Before and after pictures
- Branded images
- Team photos that humanize your business
"I love before and after pictures. I love branded pictures. It helps it stand out, helps it be memorable, it's engaging. That is the whole point—you want people to pay attention," says Cauffman.
5. Keep Messages Short But Highlight Problems and Benefits
While texts should be concise, they need to clearly explain what treatments do:
- Don’t just use treatment names—explain what they accomplish
- Highlight either the problem solved or benefit gained
- Consider complementing texts with more detailed emails
"Don't just say IPL. Let people know that that's going to get rid of sunspots, brown spots. You have to educate them because a lot of people don't know what IPL is," Cauffman explains.
6. Highlight Savings or Added Value
Clients need to instantly understand the value of your offer. Don’t make them do math.
For example:
- ❌ “100 units of Botox for $1,000”
- ✅ “100 units of Botox for $1,000 (SAVE $400 from our regular $14/unit pricing)”
The same goes for value-adds:
- ❌ “Buy 3 Opus treatments and get an Epicutis skincare set”
- ✅ “Buy 3 Opus treatments and get a FREE Epicutis luxury skincare set ($500 value)”
7. Create a Sense of Urgency
Motivate clients to act quickly with these proven techniques:
- Set clear expiration dates for offers
- Limit promotions to a specific number of clients
- Use language that encourages immediate action
"How annoying is it when Best Buy does their Black Friday deals and they limit it to only the next 10 people? But it works. It works when you dangle that fruit. It gets people to take action," says Cauffman.
8. Personalize Your Messages
Generic mass texts don’t convert as well as personalized messages. Take your texting to the next level by:
- Segmenting your client list – Create targeted campaigns based on previous purchases or interests.
- Using conversational language – Write in a friendly tone and include emojis to appear less rigid.
- Positioning yourself as a personal shopper – Make recommendations based on clients’ previous treatments.
"When you segment your list, you could pull a list of anyone that has bought Sculptra, and then you could give them a specific promo. You can even say, 'Hey, because you got Sculptra, I think this would be really great for you,'" Cauffman suggests.
For VIP clients or special promotions, consider using voicemail drops before sending texts to create an even more personalized experience—though Cauffman recommends using this approach for targeted campaigns rather than your entire database.
9. Track and Analyze Your Results
Don’t just throw something against the wall to see if it sticks. Measure your performance to guide future campaigns:
- Unsubscribe rates
- Number of RSVPs or responses
- Sales generated
"Why is this so important? It's because I want you to eventually not really have to think too much about what your monthly promos are going to be from one year to the next," Cauffman explains. "When we're just in survival mode or seeing what's going to stick and not truly testing and tracking results, then we are not making good informed decisions in our business."
By tracking your data quarterly and annually, planning becomes much easier in subsequent years rather than just surviving month to month.
Start Implementing These SMS Marketing Best Practices Today
You don’t need to implement all these strategies at once. As Cauffman encourages, “Take at least one of the tips that you learned today and include it in your next text promotion. It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about doing every little thing that I shared with you, but getting a little bit better every single time, every single month.”
Ready to transform your med spa’s text message marketing? Book a strategy session with Diamond Accelerator today to develop a comprehensive marketing plan tailored to your med spa’s unique needs.
Stop leaving money on the table and start turning your text campaigns into thousands of dollars in revenue each month.
