It's All About Returning: Where the Growth Actually Is in 2026

Skya (00:00):
You're paying for what you get. It's the same as injectables. It's the same as all of these businesses that we work with. You are paying for a level of expertise and really great quality product that might be a little bit more expensive, but in the long run it's worth it.

Jessica (00:24):
Hi, I'm Jessica Hunter and welcome back to Aesthetic Appeal, our podcast with Aesthetic Brokers. We are today at the Aesthetic Show and I am with Skya from Boulevard who actually handles all of their sort of consulting. And Skya, I'm so happy to have you here. I have so many questions for you. You know that I definitely talk a lot about how important it is to have an EMR platform for our aesthetic clients in terms of really an all-in-one solution. And so a lot of my clients come to me and they're using three, four, five, sometimes six.

Skya (00:58):
And probably unintegrated.

Jessica (01:00):
Absolutely. All of these different platforms, one for texting, one for email, right? One for their actual reporting. And so I've worked with obviously Boulevard as one of our partners. We have a really good strong relationship. And the reason for that is because I think it solves a lot of these problems. And so I'd love you to talk a little bit about what you guys do in terms of marketing integration, which I think is one of the number one things that we have to be mindful of when we're talking about retention and really nurturing our client's journey to see us more frequently and more often. And sort of what you guys do to kind of bridge that gap and kind of, again, encompass into that all in one tech stack.

Skya (01:38):
Historically, this industry with technology has been underserved. We've kind of piecemealed things together. I was a practice manager back in the day and I remember being like online booking, charting, marketing, bookkeeping, reporting. It's all separate. So really having a holistic ecosystem of an all-in-one platform is so vital, especially for anyone looking to grow, looking to eventually sell. It's so much easier to do that effectively when you're not piecemealing things together. And honestly, I look at it as it's the same as if you're going out and buying a laser or a device. You're not going to buy a part of that device. You're buying the entire thing and you're encompassing all pieces of it into your practice. And we know marketing is the key to success long term for these businesses. So having a fully in-house marketing suite and list of marketing tools for practices to be able to use is really key for us.

(02:34):
But what I really wanted us to hit home on was something that was easy to use because practice managers, owners didn't go to college for marketing. They don't want to spend hours setting up campaigns, setting up segments, figuring out who to send what to. So it's very user friendly in terms of you set it and forget it and then it sends and it figures out who needs what nudge, what client needs that little thoughtful personalized email or text message to book their next tox appointment. Because we all know we get busy and then we're like, "My forehead's moving. I need to get in for my tox appointment right now or I'm going to freak out." So having that little nudge to be able to send a client like, "Hey, you're overdue for your Botox. Let's get you in." That is so key to not only helping the business keep revenue, but also the client experience.

(03:23):
They don't want marketing that feels really salesy or unapplicable to them. If they're not a member, they don't want member marketing. If they're not interested in lasers, they don't want to email saying, "Hey, try out all of these lasers." It has to be very thoughtful in how we're segmenting, how we're sending, what it looks like when it shows up in the inbox. And then I think the latter piece of that that people forget is being able to actually see ROI. I'm sure you see this all the time. People spend thousands of dollars on marketing and then you ask them like, "What's your ROI on that?" And they're like, "I think it is working. I think it's going good. I don't really know." Absolutely. So I always tell people, if you can't actually track the number of what you're getting back in revenue, what you're retaining in clients, any of those things, then you can't know if your system's actually effective.

(04:10):
So being able to have something in-house makes it so you can just pull a report in Boulevard and say, okay, this is what I spend on marketing and this is the sales that are associated with those marketing campaigns.

Jessica (04:21):
So if I am brand new to Boulevard and I'm implementing it tomorrow, tell me about maybe that's what I would start with in terms of building out sort of that retention sequence that I'd be able to do with your platform right from the get go. And then let's hop in and talk a little bit about those really awesome marketing segmentations that you kind of alluded to and dive into that.

Skya (04:41):
So we have created some segmentations. We call them automated campaigns. And what they do is it's built off of AI actually. I say it's like your marketing guru that's going through and finding those clients that need that little nudge with a fine tooth comb. So it's analyzing client buying habits, membership status, recent appointments, last appointments, if they fell off and canceled an appointment. And all of these different factors kind of feed into those. And we have a couple different ones to choose from. We have some more simple ones like birthday message, which you always want to send something thoughtful. You want to send a, "Hey, we're thinking about you on your birthday." So I always tell anyone that's onboarding with Boulevard, go in, set up those campaigns, toggle them on, put your beautiful imagery and branding in there. And once it looks to your brand, then you're good.

(05:32):
It's going to be working on the backend. It's going to be doing its thing, filling the schedule. Things like last minute openings can be fully automated. So I always say, first step is set up your automated campaigns to be working in the background. So that's just earning you bookings, earning revenue. And then going in and building out your segments for your blast campaign. So let's say you are really injectable heavy. You're going to have a different segment for your injectable clients than if you're bringing on, let's say, an aesthetician to do aesthetic services. Those segments are going to be completely different. So I always tell people, once automated campaigns are set up, think of that as kind of like your retention cycles kind of running in the background. Segmentations where you get really specific with promos, specials, cross-promotional marketing. So I always say a great one is like, hey, if someone's only coming in for tox, profit margins aren't that good on tox.

(06:24):
So what can we get them in for that compliments that? So hey, if you've come in for tox a lot, let's surface some information about how microneedling can pair well with that. So then build out a segmentation for that specifically. So you can get really creative. There's no one size fits all for, I would say, segmentations. It's going to be specific on your business's trends and how you're wanting to grow either, let's say, energy-based devices or injectables. But those automated campaigns are always running in the back. So you have that kind of guarantee of no one's getting missed. No one's falling through the cracks.

Jessica (07:00):
Yeah. I love that. And so I think talking about the marketing segmentation piece, I think one of the things I get a lot of pushback from my clients is like, I don't want to over spam or over email or over text. And I love this because all we're doing is sort of, again, kind of honing in on what someone's already said that they're interested in. And it's geared, customized to our needs. And that to me is the difference. That really is the difference about that internal marketing that we talked about. Talk to me a little bit about how we can look at the return on investment because I love this when we're really talking about that value in retention versus acquisition. Not to say that there isn't a place for patient acquisition and acquiring new patients, for sure. But the real value in 2026 to me -

Skya (07:46):
It's all about returning baby.

Jessica (07:47):
It's all about returning it.

Skya (07:48):
It's all about returning.

Jessica (07:49):
Yeah. And because the reality is we're going to pay all this money to get a new client in. And then what? And then what's our next path? So talk to me a little bit about how we can actually measure some of that return on investment within Boulevard.

Skya (08:02):
Yeah. So we've made it very easy and probably because I know at the end of the day, easy insights is the key to knowledge in business. If you have to spend hours pulling a report, what are the chances business owners are going to do that? They're already strapped. They're already strapped. So there's actually a prebuilt report for a couple of different metrics in terms of campaign performance in Boulevard. So quite literally, you just have to click the report, look at the date frames and see, okay, this is how many bookings I got. Here are the clicks. Here are the unsubscribes. Here's what's going on with this specific campaign. So you can even AB test. You can create a segment and say, how did this campaign compare to maybe this segmentation or this campaign? So it's very easy to see what you're paying versus what you're getting in not only sales, but also projected sales.

(08:52):
So what's upcoming on the schedule that hasn't closed out yet? So you can look a month ahead and say, okay, cool. These are my projected sales. My marketing is performing well right now and we're headed in the right direction. If you look at it and you say, no one's booked from this campaign, nothing's on the schedule. Okay, maybe something didn't work with the way that the imagery looked. Or maybe even the segmentation was maybe a little bit quirky and didn't make total sense. So let's toggle this specific filter, this client parameter and see if we get more response on the next segmentation.

(09:26):
So it's very easy to see. And I love that you brought up the returning client because that's something I preach all the time. When marketing is focused only on new lead acquisition, I almost don't believe it because new leads are so expensive and they are not what makes the best profit for the practice. Of course, we need new leads. We need that holistic ecosystem of some people coming in. But I find practices focus too much on that. And then they're like, okay, so we got all these consultations, but no one purchased. And it's like, okay, so now what we need to do is market to them to get them back in the door and become returning clients. And that's where having a fully all in one is really key.

Jessica (10:04):
So I guess the other thing that I'm thinking is with Boulevard, do we need MailChimp or Constant Contacts or what about some of these other texting platforms? Is it going to replace all of those for us?

Skya (10:16):
Generally, it would replace all of those. So especially like MailChimp, Constant Contact, those are very much basic functionalities that Boulevard can have within the system. The only exception I say is for large enterprise franchise multi-location brands where they're wanting to pull in e-commerce data and things from maybe their online shop, or if they have any sort of external sales going on outside of Boulevard. Sometimes they'll bring in something like a Klaviyo, which we have an integration with. And they'll use that in tandem with Boulevard's campaigns and kind of have like a dual action approach. So that's the only time I ever recommend anything additional on top of Boulevard as a layer. And I always say it has to be integrated. You can't be using a bunch of unintegrated marketing systems because that's where spam comes into play because you have a bunch of emails going out with no buying history or client data supporting it.

(11:12):
It's not going to make sense to the client. It's going to feel spammy. They're going to start hitting unsubscribe, stop, all of that, which we don't want. So definitely keeping it a layered integrated approach if you are adding anything additional.

Jessica (11:24):
Yeah. I love that. And I also think the whole idea that all of our client lists has one database. Do you know what I mean? All of our client lists lives in one thing.

Skya (11:33):
A true source.

Jessica (11:34):
And a true source, because this is the thing is like in a MailChimp or Constant Contact, you'll have two client lists going on. So how do you really know? And then of course you don't know they're buying habits. You don't know what their interests are. You don't know all of those other patient average spend.

Skya (11:47):
If they're a product only client, they just come in to buy sunscreen and face wash and all that. Or if they're a client who only comes in every six months, spamming them for a last minute opening might not be the best idea. Whereas someone that comes in sporadically for last minute appointments, they're going to be the one that books based off that nudge.

Jessica (12:05):
Right. That totally makes sense. So the one other topic I just want to like touch on maybe a little bit is because we talked a lot about retention and the value of that. But then also when we talk about someone sort of wanting to position their business to exit, we really want to eliminate that risk for a buyer. And one of that is showing consistent revenue, which of course comes from the ability to have some sort of membership or reoccurring revenue, I call it. Walk me through how Boulevard can really help set that up for a client and really put that together in a really easy access sort of way.

Skya (12:37):
Yeah. So that's one of my favorite topics because memberships is something that is so heavily used in other verticals, particularly like the franchise world. And it has done so much success in that model. And I think med spas and even other beauty based businesses like salon spas are catching onto that guaranteed revenue is like key for not only a successful exit, but long term strategy. So something that I always talk about is memberships is not one size fits all. You really have to look at your service menu and not only your service menu, but what's popular with your clients. I always get the, oh, I'm just going to put together a Botox bank and have clients just pre-buy units and that's going to be my membership. But it's like, what's the profit on tox? It's not great. So maybe that's not the best service to bundle into a membership.

(13:26):
Or maybe we look at, hey, you'll get member special hours where you can come in at these really high demand hours and you get priority booking. And maybe you get a discount on services and products in addition to your toxin. So I use the membership as a way to leverage like sharing across the business of services. So if they are an injectable only client, how can we get them interested in other services?

Jessica (13:50):
Yeah, absolutely.

Skya (13:50):
Well, if they're included in their membership, it's a low cost service for the business, then it's a great way to get them bought in on like, okay, it comes with one microneedling. I'll trade out. They'll love it. And then maybe they're going to be interested in purchasing a package or buying more series or treatments. So you have to be very thoughtful with the setup of membership and then also with how your tech supports it. If you're manually charging monthly, if you're handling declines manually, you need a system that runs all of that for you. Gets the clients updated card payment information if it declines. All of that admin work taken care of on the back end. So you can just focus on being there, helping your clients, delivering a client experience, being a good manager, being a good business owner, rather than dealing with like, "Hey, your card expired. Let me hunt you down for six months to try and get an updated one."

Jessica (14:40):
Oh my goodness.

Skya (14:41):
So it's definitely key to have automation with those memberships.

Jessica (14:45):
Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. I mean, what a waste of time to be looking at expired credit cards three months later. So for sure. So maybe I'll kind of end with the last question that I think is sort of like a valuable one is who do you think is the ideal client for Boulevard? If I have a new client who's kind of coming on with me and we're sort of obviously taking a look at some of their operational constraints, who do you think this is an ideal fit for that you're like, if these are some of your constraints, barriers currently within your business, Boulevard's really going to solve those solutions for you?

Skya (15:18):
I think anyone whose biggest constraint is time and bandwidth. What Boulevard is built on is really how can we automate or streamline operational tasks, client marketing, client memberships, packages. How can we streamline those so not only our owners, but also our providers can focus on what's really important to them? And I was a provider way back in the day. There's never enough time in the day. You're trying to chart, you're trying to upsell, you're trying to follow up with clients that had questions from their consult and send a text to the practice two days later. So everyone is so strapped for time in this industry and so many people are wearing different hats. If you are looking for a system to make your day-to-day easier and give you more time back, and you are ready to grow your business or invest in your business, then that's a great personality or a great business persona that we work with.

(16:17):
I'm very transparent. We're a little bit pricier than some other solutions. So if someone's price hunting, they're only concerned about what my monthly fee is, that might not be the best mindset for Boulevard because we really are working with businesses that are ready to go to the next level, that are ready to sell in five years, three years, something like that. So I associated a lot of time with you're paying for what you get. It's the same as injectables. It's the same as all of these businesses that we work with. You are paying for a level of expertise and really great quality product that might be a little bit more expensive, but in the long run it's worth it.

Jessica (16:52):
I think also too, when you start taking a look at all the different technologies that you're also using within your practice and now you're streamlining to one, there's definitely a lot of cases that can be made in terms of just that financial investment. So I actually think that that's not a huge constraint because it does really eliminate the use for some of these other additional platforms and time.

Skya (17:14):
Even not having forms and charting integrated into your system. It's any little step that you're adding to your staff or to your provider, that's taking away from time spent with clients and ability to really meet with them and say, "Hey, this is what I'm recommending, which is what's going to make your business money in the long run." So you're totally right. It is worth its weight and gold, I always say, of what time can you save?

Jessica (17:39):
Yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh. Well, thanks so much, Skya, for coming and joining.

Skya (17:43):
Thank you.

Jessica (17:43):
And this was so great. I hope that the listeners really got a lot of value and got a little insight to how Boulevard can really, again, solve some of those constraints and those issues for them, right? And it doesn't have to be so hard.

Skya (17:54):
It doesn't.

Jessica (17:55):
Enjoy the rest of the aesthetic show and thanks again.

Skya (17:58):
Thanks so much for having me.

Jessica (17:59):
You're welcome.