How to Advertise Your Medical Spa Compliantly

By: Aly Boeckh

Regulators are paying closer attention than ever before to how medical spas are advertising their products and services. Whether you're promoting discounted botox on your website, or claiming to be the BEST Laser Center in your area, or posting live snapchat stories of your patient's treatments, you must be mindful of how your state's regulatory body is interpreting these marketing techniques.

As Alex Thiersch wrote in the December issue of Modern Aesthetics' The Rise of the Regulators article, "Some medical boards, are not at all happy about the way this is trending. They see this new wave of digital marketing as having an adverse affect on the industry, as it commodifies health care and risks patient privacy. Traditionally, health care has been something people need, not something they want, so traditional thinking has suggested that it is unseemly for medical practices to advertise."

We all must ask ourselves:

How can we utilize digital marketing in our practice, without the risk of losing our license or undergoing an investigation?

Technically speaking, the medical aesthetic space is unquestionably different from the traditional medical space, assuming that all medical aesthetic treatments are elective. Therefore, it makes a certain amount of sense that medical aesthetic practices would have a different way of getting the word out about their offerings than traditional medical practices. However, judging by the way the rest of the industry is shifting, we should all expect more regulation to come.

What you can do in the meantime, is follow these 3 golden rules: ALWAYS specify who is performing treatments and what their qualifications are; Present the pricing in a simple manner; and refrain from making comparisons to competitors.

Officers of state regulatory agencies—which are almost always short of funding and staff—will often spend much of their time looking at the websites of medical aesthetic facilities and medical spas to determine which ones should be investigated. If your practice is advertising online in an improper manner, it is much more likely to find itself the subject of a state investigation than if it respects advertising guidelines.

Be careful, be mindful, and always professional. 👍

AmSpa provides business and legal resources to medical spas and aesthetic practices across the country. AmSpa’s training seminars – including Medical Spa Boot Camps and The Next Level workshops – provide business and legal best-practices to anyone entering the medical spa space or looking to improve their existing business. AmSpa members receive access to legal summaries of the laws governing medical spas in their state, access to an exclusive medical spa insurance program, and many other benefits. Learn how you can become a member today.

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