Black Friday for Aesthetic Clinics, Without Discounting
Black Friday for an aesthetic clinic lands on 27 November this year, and the question every owner asks in the weeks before is whether to join in. I nearly did, once, with a spreadsheet open and an email drafted. A patient talked me out of it the next morning. This post is why discounting is a tax on trust, what the AHPRA and TGA rules allow you to promote in the first place, and how to run a Black Friday promotion that brings bookings without teaching your patients that the real price is negotiable.
Should an aesthetic clinic do Black Friday at all?
Yes, if the promotion adds value rather than cutting price, and no, if the only idea is a percentage off. A discount on Black Friday tells loyal patients they’ve been overpaying and tells the market to wait for next year. Something extra for a set window brings forward decisions without touching what the treatment is worth.
The reasoning against discounting is simple once you’ve watched it play out. Every discount teaches patients two lessons: the real price is negotiable, and waiting for the next sale pays. The bargain hunters a discount attracts vanish the moment someone cheaper appears, because price was the whole relationship. The loyal full price patients quietly wonder why they bothered. When you eventually try to hold a price, the room empties.
None of that means Black Friday is off limits. It means the promotion has to be built on something other than price.
Why is discounting a tax on trust?
Because trust is the product in a clinic, and a discount tells the patient the price was never real. A competitor opened near my UK clinic and came out swinging on price. I sat down one evening to work out how deep I could cut, drafted the email, and nearly sent it. A patient stopped me the next morning.
The competitor launched with a big discount, then a bigger one, then a permanent rolling offer that changed every month so there was always a reason to wait. Their ads were everywhere. For a few weeks it hurt. A handful of my patients tried them. My receptionist started fielding calls asking whether we’d match, and the honest answer was that I didn’t know.
The number I landed on that evening was survivable, just, if we ran full. I nearly sent the email.
What stopped me was a conversation the next morning with a patient who’d been with us for years. She mentioned, almost offhand, that she’d seen the new place’s ads, had a look, and decided to stay because we didn’t do sales. She trusted that the price was the price, and that what she paid was what everyone paid. If we’d started discounting, she said, she’d have wondered what she’d been paying for all those years.
I deleted the draft. Instead of getting cheaper, we got better, specifically: reply speed fixed, follow up tightened, a rebooking habit at the end of every appointment, packages restructured so commitment was rewarded without touching the single session price. The competitor lasted a little over a year. I met the owner once, near the end. Lovely person, good clinician, exhausted. She’d thought the discounts were buying patients and realised too late she was renting them.
What can you legally promote on Black Friday?
Device treatments, consultations, courses, memberships and vouchers, with the terms stated in the same advertisement, a genuine prior price behind any “was” claim, and no invented urgency. Prescription-only treatments can’t be advertised to the public, so no injectable promotions at all. That rules out most of what the industry does on Black Friday, which is a good thing.
The rules in one place:
AHPRA section 133: any discount, gift or inducement must have its terms stated in the advertisement. No testimonials. Nothing that encourages unnecessary or indiscriminate use, which is what a countdown on a treatment does.
The 2025 AHPRA cosmetic guidelines: higher risk procedures can’t be trivialised or promoted in a way that pressures people. A “Black Friday injectables sale” is exactly the framing the guidelines name.
TGA Advertising Code: prescription-only medicines can’t be advertised to the public. No brand names, no “anti-wrinkle special”, no discounted filler.
Australian Consumer Law: “was $X, now $Y” needs a genuine prior selling price. Total price including GST. No fake scarcity, no countdown to a deadline that isn’t real, no “only 5 spots” unless there are only 5.
The AHPRA guidelines post has the full version. The short version for Black Friday: promote device treatments, consultations and plans, state the terms, keep it honest, and leave the prescription treatments out entirely.
What does a Black Friday promotion that adds value look like?
Something extra on a course, a plan or a membership, for a set window, with a real reason, without reducing the treatment price. A bonus session on a course of six. A skin analysis and plan included with a device treatment booked in the window. A membership joining bonus. A gift voucher that comes with a consultation.
The principle: reward commitment, don’t cut price. A patient who books a course of laser hair removal during the window and gets a seventh session included has made a bigger commitment to you and received more value. The single session price is untouched, so nobody who paid full price last month feels foolish, and nobody learns to wait.
Examples that work, all for device treatments or consultations, all with terms:
“Book a course of six [device treatment] sessions between 20 and 30 November and your seventh session is included. Course price [total including GST]. Sessions to be used within twelve months. New and existing patients.”
“Every skin consultation booked in November includes a full skin analysis and a twelve month treatment plan. Consultation [price including GST or complimentary]. Treatment not included.”
“Join the clinic membership before 30 November and your first month includes [extra]. Membership terms apply.”
The window should be real and short. Two weeks is plenty. The reason should be true: “we’ve got capacity in December and January and would rather fill it with committed patients than run empty”. Patients respect a reason. They resent a countdown.
How should you run the promotion?
Your own list first, a week before anyone else sees it, by email and SMS in the practitioner’s voice. Then a short paid campaign to people who’ve visited your site. Then, if capacity remains, a small cold campaign. Every enquiry replied to in seconds, because a Black Friday enquiry left until Monday is a booking somewhere else.
The sequence:
Two weeks out: write the offer and the terms. Get them checked. Build the landing page with the total price and the terms visible.
Ten days out: email and SMS to your existing patients and lapsed patients. “Before we open this to anyone else, here’s what we’re doing for November.” Loyalty first, always.
One week out: retargeting to site visitors on Meta and a search campaign on the treatment name plus your suburb.
During the window: instant reply on every enquiry, follow up on day one and day three for anyone who doesn’t book, a protected front desk window each day to finish conversations.
After: honour every booking at the promised terms, message everyone who enquired but didn’t book with a warm note and no pressure, and count what it produced by source.
The email marketing post next week covers writing to your list in a way that gets read. The reason the list comes first is that those people already trust you, and a promotion that reaches them before strangers says so.
What are honest uses of price?
Packages that reward commitment. A considered launch offer, once, for a new treatment or practitioner. A genuine end of line price for a product you’re discontinuing. A membership that lowers the per visit cost for people who come regularly. All of them price a bigger commitment lower, without touching what a single session is worth to a walk in.
What these have in common is that the patient gets a lower unit price by committing more, which is fair to everyone. What they never involve is a lower price for the same thing, for a while, because it’s a Friday. That’s the version that teaches the market to wait, and it’s the version the clinic across the road ran for a year before the room emptied.
If you’re deciding this week, do the maths on both versions. A 20% discount on a treatment needs a quarter more bookings just to stand still, and every one of those patients now expects 20% off forever. A bonus session on a course costs you one session’s consumables and practitioner time, brings a committed patient for six months, and leaves your prices exactly where they were. The pricing post covers why holding the price is the whole game.
Planning promotions that add value is part of the monthly campaign work in coaching. What’s included in each plan is on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Can aesthetic clinics run Black Friday sales in Australia?
Yes, for device treatments, consultations, courses and memberships, with the terms stated in the advertisement, a genuine prior price behind any “was” claim, and no fake urgency. Prescription-only treatments can’t be advertised to the public at all, so injectable promotions are out under the TGA Advertising Code, and the 2025 AHPRA guidelines specifically restrict promotional framing of higher risk procedures.
Can I discount anti-wrinkle injections for Black Friday?
No. Prescription-only medicines can’t be advertised to the public, which rules out any public promotion of them, discounted or not. Promote consultations and device treatments instead. A clinic advertising a Black Friday injectables special is creating a compliance problem with both the TGA and AHPRA, not finding a loophole.
What’s a good Black Friday offer for a clinic?
Added value on a commitment, for a short window, with a real reason. A bonus session on a course of six. A skin analysis and twelve month plan included with a consultation booked in November. A membership joining bonus. All for device treatments or consultations, all with terms in the ad, none reducing the single session price.
Why shouldn’t clinics discount?
Because a discount tells loyal patients they’ve been overpaying and tells the market to wait for the next one. Bargain hunters leave the moment someone cheaper appears. When you eventually hold a price, bookings drop. Adding value on a commitment brings forward decisions without teaching anyone that the price is negotiable.
When should I announce a Black Friday promotion?
To your own patients ten days before, by email and SMS in the practitioner’s voice, before anyone else sees it. Then paid retargeting a week out. Keep the window short, two weeks at most, with a true reason for it. Loyalty first is both the right thing and the most effective, because those people already trust you.
Do I need to include terms and conditions in a clinic promotion?
Yes, in the same advertisement, not on a linked page. AHPRA section 133 requires the terms of any discount, gift or inducement to be stated where the offer appears. Under Australian Consumer Law the price must be the total including GST. Say what’s included, for whom, until when, and any exclusions.
Book a free 45 minute discovery call
If you’re weighing up a Black Friday promotion, bring the idea. We’ll check it against the rules, work out whether it adds value or cuts price, and draft the message to your list on the call. Book your discovery call here.
