You have a captive audience of consumers interested in cosmetic rejuvenation who are on their screens all day, passing the time away, so I suggest you build your brand and list during COVID-19.
What a great opportunity to get attention and gain market share, while getting in front of thousands of new prospective patients interested in cosmetic rejuvenation.
Building that list now will keep you and your staff busy when we get back to work.
However, build your brand and your list with education and entertainment.
Do not sell or promote right now!
There’s still too much uncertainty and it will hurt your brand and make you look “dense” to the reality most consumers are facing.
Instead, create a content machine to attract new patients so prospective patients see you, get to know you, and visit you when the time is right.
Here’s how you do it…
Develop plastic surgery content
You are probably wondering what content do you have that is interesting? If you think about it, you have plenty.
Consumers interested in improving their appearance can’t get enough information. They are fascinated with the procedures and the process.
Remember, you live this world every day, whereas consumers do not so you want to become their main source of information.
Educational content is key. The best promotion is to show off your excellent work through your patients. It’s to position you as the expert so the prospective patient is reassured you are the best choice for them.
Here are examples of creating great content while you are stuck at home during COVID-19:
Perform a mock consult on your wife. Have her explain
what bothers her about her face and/or body. Then you give
your professional recommendation of what you could do to address
her concerns.
Have your wife or family member ask you questions about plastic
surgery that you hear repeatedly at your consultations.
Show before/after photos of your patients on an iPad and explain
the process of what they had done.
Interview your patients using video conferences with screen share (such as Zoom.us) and have them tell their story:
What was bothering them (the pain they were in)
Why they chose you over your competitors
What the process was like (easier than expected)
How great they feel now
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A Complete Guide to Understanding Your Aesthetic Patient and Growing Your Aesthetic Practice. Catherine Maley, MBA went straight to the aesthetic patient to get the answers you need to succeed with your patients.
Some of the most popular surgeons got that way because they are authentic and real with their patients.
They show more sides of themselves than just their surgeon side. They show they are a family man, an artist, a dog lover, an exercise enthusiast, a great cook, and so on.
Just do what feels most comfortable to you. Your current and new patients will love getting to know you better. When they feel more comfortable with you, they are way more apt to go the next step and that is to meet you in person.
The content can be still photos, short videos made with your iPhone, longer videos made with your iPad, and video conferencing at your PC while you’re showing your screen of before/after photos.
Repurpose the Content
Here is the beauty of creating this content. One piece of content can be repurposed into so many other bits of content on different social platforms.
That’s the secret to scaling content. Do it once and then spread it all over the Internet to reach a broad range of new prospective patients who go to these various platforms to get their information.
So, let’s say you made a video of a mock consultation with your family member so here is what you do:
Send to your current patient list first since they are most likely to respond
You upload the video to YouTube, Vimeo, IGTV (Instagram), and Facebook watch
You have it transcribed and turn it into articles, blog posts, press releases, and RealSelf Q&A
You upload screenshots to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat with a link to watch the video
You pull the audio MP3 from the video and start a podcast and upload to many podcast platforms
And, here’s another growth hack…. whichever content gets the most likes, shares, and comments, turn it into an ad for that platform so it reaches many more consumers than just the little organic reach you get.
Be sure to also add it to your website so when they click on it or anywhere else on your website, you can retarget them to see your ad.
Obviously, this takes tech-savvy know-how but there are plenty of people who can help you (maybe even your own kids who hang out on these platforms all day)
TESTIMONIALS
5/5
"Catherine outlined a plan that put key metrics in place, gave us a clear plan to follow throughout the year and trained our staff to increase their conversions by at least 10%. Since engaging with Catherine, I’m happy to report that revenues are up 15% over the last three months - 22% in the last month alone! I highly recommend Catherine’s consulting services to any practice looking for “best practice” additions to their operation."
"I have finally tapped into the most efficient way to grow my cosmetic practice and that is to “fish in the pond of my own patients”. When patients return to my practice, over 85% will purchase another service, product, or procedure. Not only was it worth over $200,000 in revenues this past year, it also reminds my patients I’m still around so they don’t wander off to my competitors. Catherine’s group has far exceeded our expectations and goals we had set up for them to achieve."
"Our consult conversions were running at 40-50%. Then we attended Catherine’s online training and implemented her strategies. They immediately increased conversion rates to 75-80%."
"I know how to run a profitable practice; however, it was not without major staff issues, inefficiencies and unproductive drama. With Catherine's guidance, I reorganized staff, set up processes for them to carry more of the workload and hold them accountable so I have more time to focus on patient care. The changes we put in place and the staff training to convert more callers and consultations will easily increase my revenues by 15% as well as save us time, money and costly mistakes. "
"Working with Catherine and her team has been very profitable. We’re only half way through the year and I’m up $200K and I’m booked out for the next 2 months even though we typically go into our slow summer months now. Her recent promotion brought in an extra $63,782 with more surgeries scheduled. I never realized how much money was sitting in my patient list but I’m a believer now!"
"Catherine Maley has one of the best Marketing Minds in the aesthetic industry, bar none. She understands the aesthetic patient and she also understands the challenges and frustrations we face as aesthetic surgeons. You will benefit from Catherine's tools whether you are new in practice or a seasoned professional.Turn to Catherine for guidance - she knows what she's talking about."
“Catherine’s Cosmetic Patient Marketing Service has been a great addition to our practice-building overall plan. While we still invest in our online presence, we also found immense value in the internal marketing efforts. We especially like that all results are tracked so we know we are getting a great return ... last year it was 1,148% and no staff time was used. That’s a much easier way to grow my cosmetic practice.”
"Catherine Maley turned our practice around. We converted more consultations in one week than we did in an entire month. Our practice went from a painful 50% no show rate to a remarkable 85% show rate. Even more impressive was our close ratio - from 35% to 80% and still increasing. We would recommend her to any practice that’s looking to not only increase their profits today, but sustain a healthy flow of income for many years to come. Thanks Catherine!"
"Catherine found me the best patient care coordinator I could have asked for. She worked out a payment plan that was fair to me and motivating to my coordinator. She also provided training tools to help my coordinator convert better, even though she was already experienced. The results have been phenomenal. So good, in fact, that my income increased 250% and I’m booked out for 3 months. Don’t waste any more time or money doing it yourself. Outsource to someone you trust!"
"Since we’ve been working with Catherine and her team for the past 5 months, we’ve brought in $79K in surgeries and have booked an additional 17 surgical procedures and 20 non-invasive body procedures since then. This does not include the additional new patient referrals and revenues we are seeing from the on-going nurturing of my current patient database."
"I had given my staff the goal to convert at least $35K per week in surgeries AND I gave them the tools to help which was Catherine’s Online Learning Center at More Patients Academy. They watched Catherine’s modules and implemented her strategies and converted $80K! That equaled a 2,550% ROI. Nice!"
Catherine is a business/marketing consultant to plastic surgeons. She speaks at medical conferences all over the world on practice building, marketing and the business side of plastic surgery. Get a Free Copy of her popular book, Your Aesthetic Practice: What Your Patients Are Saying View Author Profile.