Has this ever happened to you?
You have a full afternoon of consultations with prospective qualified patients who scheduled time with you to get your opinion and recommendations and then book surgery with you.
But what typically happens? Most likely …
- 3 out of 8 were not good candidates due to BMI or their medical history
- 2 out of 8 had ridiculous expectations
- 2 more wanted you to drop your price substantially
- Only 1 out of 8 booked
Now you either feel deflated that nothing is working or you’re angry and want to fire your internet marketers.
Before you do either, let’s look at what’s going on.
How to find Better Qualified Patients for Your Cosmetic Practice
Yes, advertising has gotten more challenging and expensive. You are throwing a net out to the public and hoping good quality leads come back.
But the new privacy rules are making it difficult to target your audience. That means you have to spend more to throw out an even bigger net in the hopes that a few of them will turn into cash-paying patients.
This is where knowing your ideal cosmetic patient personas comes in.
Cosmetic personas are traits your ideal qualified patients have based on your data.
They help you focus your efforts on the most qualified prospective patients, invest in the right skills and technology that suit those patients and more clearly attract the right patient at the right price, who you are more likely to retain over time.
I suggest you keep it simple and develop 2 to 4 personas. Look at the positive aspects of the ideal patient, as well as the negatives so you weed them out quickly.
Here are 3 strategies to attract more qualified cosmetic surgery patients:
The Market
Let’s talk about WHO? Who do you want to serve? Most surgeons have their favorite procedures, as well as the type of patient they enjoy working with. Don’t fight it. Just orchestrate your system to attract those patients, while repelling the others.
If I ask you who you want to serve and the only answer you come up with is, “everyone”, do this for clarity. Pull these reports:
- #1: Revenues by Procedure
- #2: Revenues by Zip Code, Age, Gender
- #3: Revenues by Referral Source
Now follow the money. Advertise the biggest money-making procedures you perform. Target those ads to certain zip codes, age and gender of the biggest revenue generating qualified patients.
Now look at who are your biggest referral sources. If it’s SEO, keep it. If it’s Google Ads, improve their effectiveness using what you’re learning here. Or if it’s word-of-mouth, throw gasoline on that fire.
The Message
It’s a mistake to market a procedure and nothing else. For example, everyone over 40 gets your tummy tuck advertising.
But do you really want that? What if they have no money for such indulgence? Or they are not done having children? What if they have medical problems? You get the point…
Go deeper than WHO and get more specific. You do that by creating content and messaging that appeals to your ideal patient persona. It also enables you to personalize your marketing for different segments of your audience.
Start with your imagery. If you want the young mom who wants their sexy back NOW, show her with a young child.


Or if you want the older mom, who has financial support and whose kids are grown, use imagery, and a great headline, other older moms will relate to.


Qualifying Prospective Patients
Now you might be wondering HOW can you learn these specifics BEFORE the wrong people waste you and your staff’s time.
The easiest way to find out the above particulars is through a cosmetic surgery quiz. Make it fun for the prospective patient to qualify or weed themselves out. Start with an ad like this:


They now click to answer questions. Use technology that is more user friendly than a long questionnaire that feels like a homework assignment. Just google “form builders” and you’ll see lots of them. Set it up so they answer only one question at a time.
Keep it short enough for them to complete it but long enough for you to determine if they are suited for surgery. Here are example questions:
- Height/weight or show BMI chart
- Prescribed medications
- History of diabetes, heart trouble
- Procedure starts at $10K. Would you be interested in our pay plans or use your own credit cards?
If they answer enough questions that work for you, they are a good prospect to reach out to set up a consultation.
This is just one strategy you can easily implement to work smarter rather than harder 😉