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Influencer marketing for plastic surgeons has become a popular form of marketing because of the results (new patients) you can get from it. It’s kind of like word of mouth referrals on steroids. 

It’s also big business. Fun Fact:  The highest paid Instagram influencer is soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, making $1.6M per sponsored post for his 478 Million followers:

Influencer Marketing for plastic surgeons

It’s become the fastest way to accelerate your presence on social media, as well as reach new audiences who could become future cosmetic patients. 

However, it can also bomb, waste your time and money, and hurt your image so keep reading.

Why Influencer Marketing?

Mass advertising credibility is at an all-time low and has turned consumers into skeptics. It’s disruptive and annoying most of the time, so today’s consumers ignore it. 

They want (demand) authentic creative content from someone they trust and follow who casually directs them to products and services they’ll appreciate. It’s subtle promotion because it’s fun and entertaining.

By the way, for now, Instagram is the most popular platform for influencer marketing for plastic surgeons and all industries because of its high engagement rates and massive audiences so start there.

And note all of those comments generated from the above post. That’s called User-Generated Content (UGC) that good influencers know how to create so it feels authentic and unpolished while promoting you at the same time. 

Influencers Must Fit your Brand

Be sure the Influencer fits your image and values. For example, a plastic surgeon I know was approached by a young woman who was a fitness buff with 500K followers; however, she had purple hair, lots of tattoos and touted a plant-based diet + fitness (vs. liposuction). She was not the right fit for this conservative practice, nor were her followers. 

On the other hand, someone known for their looks like the Kardashians or the Housewives are a great fit for our industry and so are their followers, because they also care about their looks.

Important Metrics to Follow

You won’t know if working with an influencer was effective or not if you don’t track results so here is the main information to know:

# Engagement rate (most important)

There’s a common misconception that macro-influencers (100,000+ followers) are more effective than micro or mid-level influencers (10,000–100,000 followers). While large players have greater reach, smaller players tend to be more niche, have higher engagement rates, and are usually much cheaper.  

# Reach

Reach refers to followers you gained from the Influencer’s posts. Just note how many followers you had before and then after the Influencer’s posts.

# Effectiveness

How much User-Generated Content (UGC) did their posts about you create? And, did the influencer include an identifiable call to action so you can track the response, such as UTMs or affiliate codes to track conversions? Or, did they use landing pages to collect contact information from their followers such as name, cell, email that you could contact outside of social media? 

The higher the above numbers, the more you should be willing to pay for the exposure.

Control the Content

Get everything in writing so expectations are super clear and there are no misunderstandings.

Approve their content before they post just to be sure it fits with your brand and doesn’t hurt your image. 

Better yet, control the content by having them agree to record their visit to your practice. Start with why they are there and the problem they have that you can solve. Then you explain what you are going to do and then do it, making sure the patient is comfortable and pain free. 

The influencer should be narrating their experience.  Now edit the video to make it entertaining to watch, yet informative but also compelling so the followers comment on it and reach out to you.

What Should You Pay Influencers?

This is all over the board and there are no set guidelines for our industry. Typically, the Influencer will offer to do a series of Instagram Stories and in-feed content posts for a fee depending on the metrics below, or for a discount on your services. 

Before you agree on compensation, you want to know, in detail, how much content they will produce and how they will track it. 

So, work with Influencers who have a good handle on their analytics and can show you before/after stats and case studies, just like you show B/A photos to would-be patients  😉

How to Find Influencers

I know surgeons who have set up full web pages just for would-be influencers. The page includes lots of questions for the person to qualify as an influencer. For example:

  • # followers
  • # impressions
  • # case study link clicks of others you’ve promoted
  • What can you provide to help grow my practice?
  • Where are you based?

And have them take a screen shot of their social media analytics to verify their numbers. 

Google influencer marketing for plastic surgeons and tons of websites pop up to pair you with the right influencer for your practice. I personally would only work with an agency with experience in the aesthetic industry since cosmetic patients have specific emotional triggers different from regular consumers.  However, this can be a crapshoot so research carefully and get everything in writing.

Patient Influencers

Since you probably can’t get a Kardashian to be your celebrity social proof, here’s the next best thing.

Your influencers are also your local patients. They may not be a celebrity, but they are happy patients who can authentically relay their experience to other prospective cosmetic patients just like them.

Start with your patients with a strong social media following. Have your staff ask your patients about their social followers in a conversational way or check out their stats on Instagram and Facebook and ask them how they got so many followers. 

Videotape their entire journey with you, or videotape at least a Q&A session with them with compelling questions such as: 

  • Why did you come to me? (the pain they were in)
  • Why did that bother you? (the emotions of the  pain they were in)
  • What was their experience like? (staff was caring, felt well taken care of)
  • How do you feel about your result? (life-changing)
  • Any advice for others considering this procedure? (don’t wait!)

It’s the patients’ stories that are so interesting to other prospective patients who want to experience that story also.

By the way, it’s helpful to have a mix of ages, shapes and ethnicities so prospective patients can see themselves in your patient influencers.

Staff Also Make Great Influencers

Turn your staff into walking/talking testimonials. There is nothing more compelling than a prospective patient seeing another cosmetic patient standing in front of them who has already experienced plastic surgery performed by you.

Your staff can share their story and show off their results in person and online. Have your staff consent to the use of their photos, written testimonials, as well as video testimonials to use on all of your social media platforms and website. 

Your current patients will love seeing your staff stories, comment on them to create UGC so the platforms show your content to even more consumers and that’s how you grow.

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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."
Robert Sigal, MD
Robert Sigal, MD
"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."
Victor Ferrari, MD
Victor Ferrari, MD
"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%."
Anthony Corrado, MD
Anthony Corrado, MD
"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. "
Evan Sorokin, MD
Evan Sorokin, MD
"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!"
Robert Langdon, MD
Robert Langdon, MD
"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."
Edwin Williams, MD
Edwin Williams, MD
“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.”
Mark Mason, MD
Mark Mason, MD
"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!"
Sam Assassa, MD
Sam Assassa, MD
"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!"
Andrew Lofman, MD
Andrew Lofman, MD
"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."
Verne Weisberg, MD
Verne Weisberg, MD
"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!"
Adam Stein, MD
Adam Stein, MD
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