The Marketing Lab

Welcome to The Marketing Lab!

This room is meant to be fun and impactful. We tend to hyper-focus on social media, when in reality some of the most effective marketing happens outside of it.

Each month inside The Marketing Lab, you’ll implement one simple, non-social strategy that actually moves your business forward. Stick with it, and you’ll be amazed how much progress you’ve made in just a few months.

STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP PLANNING

How Estheticians Build Growth Without Posting More

As an esthetician, most of your growth so far has likely come from one place: yourself.

Your skills.
Your personality.
Your consistency.

And while that works, it also caps you.

Established businesses don’t rely on one channel, one platform, or one person to create demand.

They build strategic relationships that put them in front of aligned audiences long before they need the exposure.

In this month’s Marketing Lab, we aren’t doing outreach, we aren’t pitching, and we aren’t “collabing for clout.”

We are planning.

Strategic Relationship Planning is the process of identifying businesses that already serve your dream client and intentionally mapping where relationships could exist in the future, without pressure to act on them yet.

Think of this as very important business development.

When done well, these relationships can eventually lead to:

shared visibility
referrals that convert faster
warm introductions to new audiences
opportunities that don’t depend on social media performance

Right now, we’re not executing anything.

We’re simply building the asset most estheticians never take the time to create:
a relationship pipeline.

This is how growth becomes intentional instead of reactive.

Create a Marketing Home Base
Before we plan growth, we organize it.
- Create a Google Drive folder called Marketing
- Inside it, create one folder called Strategic Relationships
This is where this work will live and where future Labs will build on top of it.
You’re creating a system. This isn’t a one-off exercise.
#2: BUILD YOUR STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP LIST
Create a simple Google Sheet inside your Strategic Relationships folder.
Add these columns:
- Business Name
- Type of Business
- Why They’re Aligned (audience overlap)
- Potential Collaboration Ideas (no details yet)
- Notes
Now, brainstorm 10–20 businesses in your area that:
- serve the same type of client you want
- are not direct competitors
- already have trust with their audience
Examples may include:
- hair salons
- gyms, pilates, yoga studios
- bridal boutiques
- wellness spaces
- photographers
- coffee shops or boutiques your clients already love
There is no outreach required.
No messaging.
No tagging.
This is research and awareness, not action.
#3 THINK LONG-TERM
For each business, ask yourself one question:
“If a relationship existed here one day, how could it support my business?”
That’s it.
You are not committing to anything.
You are simply training yourself to think like a business owner who plans growth instead of one that chases it.
💡 PRO TIP
Most estheticians wait until business feels slow to think about visibility.
But by then, everything feels urgent.
This list removes urgency.
Over time, this becomes one of the most valuable assets in your business, especially when you’re ready to expand beyond relying solely on Instagram.