The Contraindication

Are your clinic emails helping patients with their concerns, or simply announcing the treatment you want to sell this month? In this episode of The Contraindication, I continue my eight-week email series by looking at the treatment of the month email. I explain why promotions built around what a clinic wants to sell can miss what patients care about, and why emails should start with their question...

Is email really dead, or are your emails just giving patients no reason to open them? In this episode of The Contraindication, I kick off an eight-week series on email marketing, the channel so many clinics have quietly given up on. I share why a treatment of the month or a newsletter that reads like a price list isn't proof that email doesn't work, and why your email list deserves far more attent...

Are you quietly telling patients your price is a problem before they've even had a chance to decide? In this episode of The Contraindication, I follow on from last week's look at Black Friday discounting to explore why pricing confidence is contagious. Your patients can't see your margins or your costs, but they can see and hear you flinch when you say the price. I unpack why your price is a state...

Has the marketing behind new aesthetic treatments and devices finally outpaced the clinical evidence that should support them? In this special guest episode of The Contraindication, I sit down with Dr Hansel Misquitta, founder of Dr Hans Clinics in London and writer of the Substack On Record by Dr Hans. Dr Hans is an International Medical doctor with a background in plastic surgery, worked in Mumb...

Is your Black Friday discount quietly costing your clinic more than it brings in? In this episode of The Contraindication, I take on Black Friday, which falls on 27 November this year, and explain why aesthetic clinics and brands need to stop copying e-commerce. Black Friday was built to shift stock, where identical products compete purely on price. But we don't sell TVs; we sell trust. I break do...

The aesthetics industry is having two arguments about skincare retail. Both are a waste of breath. In this episode of The Contraindication, I take on the two most circular debates in aesthetics right now: whether "medical-grade" is a real thing, and whether clinics are right to be furious that the brands they retail have gone direct-to-consumer. My argument is that neither conversation touches the...

Are you leaving your final quarter of the year up to chance, or are you actually steering the ship? In this episode, I break down why "being busy" isn't the same as having a plan for quarter four. With just weeks left in the year, I share my five practical, low-cost strategies to help you take control of your diary, leverage your existing database, and finish the year with a record-breaking quarte...

What happens when your patients arrive at their consultation with a treatment plan already diagnosed by artificial intelligence? In this episode of The Contraindication, I explore the rising trend of patients using AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to self-diagnose and formulate their own aesthetic treatment plans before they even book a consultation. I breaks down why this shift from "Dr. Google" t...

Are you letting valuable leads and rebookings silently leak out of your aesthetic clinic? In this final episode of our AI mini-series, I tie everything together by exploring the hidden system gaps that cost clinics money. From missed social media enquiries to forgotten follow-ups, I share how AI can act as the connective tissue between your disconnected tools - allowing you to automate operations...

Are you making crucial financial decisions for your aesthetic clinic using data that is already out of date? In this episode of The Contraindication, I share why relying on a monthly or quarterly P&L statement is like driving by looking in the rearview mirror. We dive into how clinic owners can shift from conducting a financial "post-mortem" to using real-time data and AI to spot operational b...

Is a signed form in the waiting room really enough to protect your aesthetic clinic when something goes wrong? In this episode of The Contraindication, I dive into the hidden consent problem that nobody in medical aesthetics is talking about. Moving beyond basic compliance, I share why traditional consent processes fail to meet Montgomery standards and how artificial intelligence can build a robus...

Are you treating compliance as a once-a-year headache rather than a live, continuous system for your aesthetics clinic? In this episode of The Contraindication, I explore how artificial intelligence can transform your clinic's compliance from a dreaded annual task into an automated, background infrastructure. I dive into the realities of compliance drift, the upcoming UK aesthetics licensing frame...

Are you unknowingly crossing the line where artificial intelligence stops being a helpful tool and starts becoming a serious legal liability for your aesthetic clinic? In this episode of The Contraindication, I dive into the high-stakes reality of using AI in medical aesthetics. Moving beyond the generic content trap, I share the critical clinical line where patient safety, medical records, and tr...

Are you letting artificial intelligence strip the personality out of your aesthetic clinic's brand? In this episode of The Contraindication, I kick off my six-part mini-series exploring the role of AI in medical aesthetics. We dive into the "creation trap" and why relying on AI for patient-facing content is costing you trust, authority, and potentially even your compliance with advertising standar...

Every year it happens. The diary gets a little quieter. Enquiries slow down. And that familiar panic sets in. The summer slowdown is real, it's industry-wide, and it's coming regardless of what you do. What you can control is what you do with it. In this Marketing Monday I give you both sides. Three tactics to keep bookings and revenue moving through the slow months and four things to get done whi...

This is the first ever guested episode of The Contraindication and a quick note before we get into it: I have no commercial relationship with either guest or with Wish Skin Health UK. The aesthetics industry is saturated with brands promising the world, yet so many practitioners are left feeling completely exhausted when it comes to actually clearing acne long-term. In this episode, I am joined by...

This week I want to talk about one of those quiet, under-the-radar things that’s probably holding your local visibility back without you even realising it. In this Marketing Monday episode of The Contraindication, I explain why citation consistency matters so much for aesthetic clinics and the simple fix that most clinics are missing. What You’ll Discover - What Citations Actually Are and Why Goog...

This week I want to talk about something that doesn’t involve Google at all. In this Marketing Monday episode, I shift the focus from online visibility to the power of local referral partnerships - the trusted relationships that turn other local businesses into your best source of high-quality patients. What You’ll Discover - Why Personal Recommendations Convert Better : How word-of-mouth from som...

I wanted to record this episode because I see the same thing happening again and again. Clinics invest in incredible new technology, the expectations are high, the finance agreement starts ticking, and then… it just doesn’t land. In this episode of The Contraindication, I break down how to market a new device properly, not just once it arrives, but from the moment you start thinking about investin...

This week I want to talk about the massive opportunity most aesthetic clinics are still missing. In this Marketing Monday episode of The Contraindication, I dive into why local search is now the entire game for clinics and what the numbers really mean for your diary. What You’ll Discover - The Scale of Local Intent : Why 46% of all Google searches have local intent and how 1.5 billion “near me” se...

This week I want to talk about the one thing most aesthetic clinics are still missing when it comes to being found by patients in their local area. In this Marketing Monday episode of The Contraindication, I break down why local SEO matters more than ever and the simple but powerful fix that most clinics overlook - making it crystal clear to Google exactly where you are and who you serve. What You...

Google just dropped something HUGE and I believe it’s going to change how aesthetic clinics show up online for years to come. In this episode of The Contraindication, I break down Google’s new official guidance on AI search and what it really means for visibility, trust, and patient acquisition in aesthetics. What You’ll Discover - The Scale of the Shift : AI Overviews now appear in up to 48% of s...

This week I’m staying with Google because your reviews only work properly when the rest of your profile is pulling its weight. In this Marketing Monday episode of The Contraindication, I talk about why so many beautiful, premium aesthetic clinics are quietly losing patients at the final decision point - their Google Business Profile. I walk through the common signs of neglect and exactly what to r...

I know this is something every clinic worries about because it feels personal when it happens. In this episode, I talk about bad reviews and how easy it is to let them knock your confidence or trigger an emotional response. But here’s the shift I want you to hold onto. It’s not the review itself that matters most, it’s how you respond to it. And when you get that right, you can actually build more...

Marketing Monday: Turn Patient Reviews into Powerful Content It’s Marketing Monday. Five minutes. One small fix. Because small changes compound. In this episode of The Contraindication , Elly shares one of the most underused content strategies in aesthetic clinic marketing: turning patient reviews into powerful marketing content. Most clinics work hard to collect Google reviews but then leave them...