Introducing YOU Marketing:
Proven benefits, advice and tips on the importance of, and how to video market yourself in today’s competitive marketplace. Let yourself shine through as a skilled and personable Doc and connect with your patient base on a more human, intimate level.
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Episode transcript:
Introducing YOU Marketing
Welcome to“Beauty and the Biz”. Discover how to grow your practice with effective cosmetic patient attraction, conversion and retention advice from author, speaker, trainer and cosmetic practice business and marketing coach, Catherine Maley, MBA.
Hello and welcome to “Beauty and the Biz” where we talk about the business and marketing side of the cosmetic practice. I’m your host Catherine Maley, author of “Your Aesthetic Practice – What Your Patients are Saying” as well as consultant to cosmetic practices to get them more patients and more profits. So, today’s episode is called “Introducing YOU Marketing” and you’ll know what I mean in a minute.
So, in today’s world of authenticity and transparency your prospective patients want to know you as a skilled surgeon and as a real person as if it wasn’t enough to be the surgeon now you have to be everything else along with it. So, you can no longer hide behind a surgical mask. You really do need to be seen as who you really are. So for example maybe that’s a great boss or a devoted family man or a fitness buff or a dog lover or a philanthropist or a weekend pastry chef or some other hobby your patients will be interested in knowing about you and we all know to attract new cosmetic patients to your practice you first need to get their attention and that is no simple feat in today’s world since you and everyone else is vying for the attention of today’s cosmetic patient. Now while there is no one place to go for attention YouTube is a really good bet since it’s the second largest engine next to Google. In fact, Google bought YouTube so you can be sure it’s a vital platform for Google. Now here’s what I always say if Google likes it you should too because for now they do rule the online world.
So, there’s a couple more reasons why YouTube is the place to be. Did you know people upload more than 100 hours of video per minute to YouTube? That’s crazy. Here’s what I really like about it. It greatly increases your chances of getting on the first page of search results and that’s where you want to be seen by prospective patients interested in plastic surgery. That I think is the biggest reason and then of course it’s mobile-friendly. So, if you’re not on YouTube yet I highly recommend you use the following strategies I’m going to give you here. I’ll give you tips and strategies so you can build your own presence on this channel.
So, you do want to use props if you can because it’s not enough to just be informational you also need to be entertaining. So, try to think of that, you know, when is it time to just be super straight and educational and how can you make that more entertaining and props is certainly helpful and so is music. Here’s a resource that I found that was really helpful because if you’ve ever looked for music to go with anything it takes hours and hours to listen to music, it’s so crazy. So, you can go to audiojungle.net and they list music by feelings. It’s an easier way to find the music you’re looking for and then you want to make sure the environment you’re videotaping in is conducive to YouTube videos. I know some people try to videotape outside and you can’t control the noise. I would probably just stick with your office especially if it’s a really nice office or at least a really nice part of your office, maybe even make a room in your office your video room so it’s always secure, the lighting’s always right. In YouTube videos the most important element is going to be your audio so you want to make sure you can control that and then you want to use your branding everywhere in that video.
So, let’s say you’re sitting at your desk, well the background should have all of your credentials, you know, your medical degrees, your hospital affiliations, your top dock plaques. If you have a book have that on display, anything that depicts you as the expert I would have that in the background showing off and you’re bragging without hitting them over the head with it. They’re just seeing it in the background. The thing about YouTube videos we love to watch what’s going on in the background of where you are. So, make sure your background is clutter free and all about your branding. People ask me all the time well, what should I wear. Well, it depends on the topic. If you’re talking casually, quite frankly if you’re the weekend pastry chef I think you should be in your kitchen with a pastry hat on and an apron, you know, really look the part. If you’re talking about something casual let’s say your philanthropic efforts then you can be casual. However, if you’re talking about surgery I don’t think you should have on your polo shirt. I think you should be wearing your white lab coat.
Here’s what’s getting confused. In my book I ask the patient what did you want your surgeon to wear at the consultation, what was more credible for you. It was something like 66% wanted you in a white lab coat because the suit and tie felt a little too salesy and the scrubs was a little too scary. So, you have to figure that out. You know what I’ve noticed. A lot of you now are just getting much more casual and wearing let’s say a shirt and tie or you’re wearing you know a suit without a tie and now the non-core are wearing the white lab coat, so they look more credible.so you have to figure that out. So, the easiest way to get started on YouTube is to upload any videos that you have given at medical conferences, any talks you’ve given in your community, anywhere where you’re being shown as the expert. It elevates your status as an invited speaker and that tells your patients or your prospective patients wow, he speaks around the country he must know what he’s talking about.
Now, the next easiest thing to do is to videotape your consultations with prospective patients since that’s where you’re most comfortable and that’s where you’re most articulate. I really like that idea and by the way you’re going to say to me, oh but my patients would never be videotaped. First of all, that’s not true because I, being a consultant all over the world, I have watched surgeons do this over and over and over. So, unless you have very different patients than somebody else which you don’t. I know you think you do but you don’t. You just haven’t asked enough patients. But, let’s say they give you some flak and they don’t want their face to show on the videos no problem. You can always film them from the back because really the essence of the consultation is for you to be on your game and the patient wants to see you discussing with the prospective patient what you know. I mean that’s the true part of this anyway, so the patient is kind of secondary at this point. So, just showing them from the back I think works great.
Now, what I would do is a typical step-by-step consultation and just be yourself and this is where the props come in. You can use computer imaging you can use some kind of animation. If you’re really good at sketching do that. Do anything that helps you explain to the prospective patient your recommendations as well as the results they can expect. Because, at that point the viewers are trying to see themselves in this and if they can see you going step by step with the consultation now they’re getting completely comfortable with the process and that’s what we’re looking for. But you also want to be sure to handle and answer typical questions and objections that you always get. Handle the objections now while they’re watching that video because the more comfortable they get with those objections going on in their head the more comfortable they’re going to be to relax and go the next step. So, you want to handle the objections and they’re always the same ones aren’t they it’s anesthesia, pain, downtime. I personally don’t think you should be talking about costs. I think that should go to your coordinator, but you should talk about incisions and anything clinical should be you. Cost should be your staff and even though you may believe patients already know the answers to these questions because you think everyone’s on RealSelf, and everyone’s Googled it to death not everybody has, and they have never heard the answers from you directly and that’s what they’re looking for. A serious prospective patient wants to hear it straight from you. So, the good news is you don’t need to be a trained actor. It’s actually better if you just be yourself and talk like you do every day, day in and day out. You’re just so comfortable with that information that it’ll come off very comfortable. You’ll be a skilled authority because you’ll be articulate about what you’re talking about because you know the subject matter well. So, the whole point of these videos is you’re trying to get these patients to get super comfortable with you, so they want to go the next step which is to meet you.
Now I’m a huge proponent of using YouTube to discuss all these objections visually. So, for example if you’re going to talk about let’s say a breast aug and everybody wants to know, breast aug patients want to know where is the scar going to be because the scar can be all sorts of different places. So, visually you show off pictures of let’s say a drawing of where the scars are going to be and then right next to it, so it’s like a before and after photo but right next to it you’re showing a true-blue scar afterwards. I would even have after week one, month one, year one where the scar is completely gone, or they just can’t see it at all in the fold. That’s what patients want to know. How can you show me what this is going to look like. Don’t we live in that world. We live in a show me world and you can do that with YouTube.
Now here’s the thing about the guts and glory. I know a lot of you, you guys are showing full-on surgical procedures and most people are pretty grossed out by that. In YouTube for sure you have to decide where you’re going with this. You’re used to seeing an open rhino or those God-awful surgical procedures. You’re used to it the public is not. I guarantee you’re losing a lot of viewers when you’re showing that. So, you have to figure out do you want to show that. If you are going to show it though I would show it right at the beginning, visual surgery being shown or something. Give them a chance to say yes or no to it but just for your own interest Google an animation. I’ll just call it rhinoplasty because I did this myself on YouTube. I went to a rhinoplasty and of course in parentheses they say nose job because most publicly people call it nose job and they cut, and they had a video animation. There was no blood and no gory stuff. They had over 2.5 million views whereas somebody else, some surgeon was doing a full on and he’s calling it a ” Bulbous Nose Rhinoplasty Dome Binding Sutures. First of all, nobody knows what that heck that is and he only got 19,000 views versus the 2.5 million. I just don’t know if it’s a great idea to do that and don’t talk like a doctor when you’re talking to the lay people. They will have no idea what you’re talking about and instead of you sounding smart that you’re just going to confuse them.
Here’s another great idea to keep this simple. You know how you can have before-and-after photos and what I would do is make one or two minute videos of the before and after photos and just show them and you’re in the background telling their story. So, you’re saying for example this is a 49 year old woman. She’s been thinking about a facelift for a long time. Her kids are finally grown. She and her husband want to start traveling. She wants her look back. Just tell her story and then what you did for her, not graphically just what you did for her. You lifted, you didn’t God, cut into her. You lifted her eyes, her cheekbones, her lips gave her fuller lips, that kind of thing. You can just do a whole bunch of those because we people, we females especially we love the patient’s stories and the patient photos. If you just had a YouTube video channel and you just listed a whole bunch of before and after photos. We love looking at those photos and then of course when we open it you’re narrating the patients story. I think that’s super golden.
So, do you see how you’ve got the built in content already because a lot of you are saying I don’t know what to film. Just film the day in the life of a plastic surgeon because no day is the same for you. You’ve got visiting patients. They all have their own story to tell and that’s what gives you the fresh content. I hope you can see that. Now, a couple of other ideas. You can be interviewed by influencers and I think this is a heck of a great idea. That’s why you have to ask your patients nowadays what do you do for a living. Maybe they’re a blogger, maybe they’re an Instagram favorite. Anybody who’s got any kind of following and it doesn’t have to be a million followers. Even if they only have 30,000 followers but they’re all local in your area go for it. I mean how long does it take to interview somebody. This can all be done virtually. You just get on the phone, on an online conference with them but here would be the caveat. I would have the influencer be the demographic that I’m looking for and hopefully she’s even your patient that’s even better.
So, for example you would have a much different interview with an influencer who is, let’s say a woman over 50 who isn’t ready for surgery yet but she wants non-surgical solutions or she is ready for surgery and she needs to understand what goes into that whole journey or if you’ve got an influencer who’s in her 20s and she wants a breast aug. Just pick one demographic and one body part. But here’s the caveat always provide them with the questions that you want them to ask you because you want to control some of this. Some of these influencers, you think they’re on your side but then they’ll throw your curveball. You don’t want it to be that iffy and out of control. You want to present or give them the questions you want to ask and then give them the parameters of things and then here’s another thought – see it’s their channel so they can disable the comments, or they can have the comments available. You want to be careful with this because, do you see how it’s their channel, it’s not your channel, you can’t monitor these comments.
I did notice on somebody on YouTube when I was researching for this presentation. Something on YouTube is a plastic surgeon in Florida and he had a lawsuit issue many, many years ago with a very well-known pop star. I never had heard of him, but he was a well-known pop star. Well, sure enough he’s being interviewed by this influencer who had her following and what he doesn’t know is they are watching this and they’re commenting on it and they’re saying things like that’s the guy that was sued by so-and-so and he won over half a million dollars and then it goes on and on like he’s the worst surgeon in the world. Why in the world would anyone go to him? So, you have to be careful of that. That’s the only thing I don’t love about influencers is you don’t have as much control over their lists or their followers or their comments.
Now what I would do. In case you’re afraid of that what you want to do is have an influencer and let’s say hopefully they want to have something done by you and they agree to let you videotape them. So, maybe they’re like Instagram people so they’re going to be doing their own Instagram stuff and that’s fine but you want to build your YouTube channel so you’re going to have your own staff there with an iPad or a video camera and you’re going to be filming the whole thing yourself so you can control it. That’s a great way to do it too. Another thing I love is just doing your own Q&A with your own patients, like every one of them who’s willing to talk to you on video. So, let’s say they come back for their post-op meeting with you and you grab your staff with the iPad and just ask them some questions or like you can unveil their surgical result if they agree to that. You can see their initial reaction. That’s always super powerful when you show them for the first time the result and they’re saying, oh my God, this is amazing! I love it! Any emotional videos are fantastic and then ask them questions. What was your process like? How was the recovery? I mean why sugarcoat all this. It’s not fun to have surgery however we don’t focus there. We always keep going and focus on the end result that they got and the feelings that they got of hope and happiness and a new lease on life.
That’s what we’re trying to capture in video, and you can’t do that in a written testimonial. You need a video testimonial where they’re literally hugging you, smiling, crying, gushing about their result. Another idea that I really like is having an introductory video saying who you are, what you’re all about, your office, the journey that they’ll be going through and all you need to do here is it sounds like a big project and it doesn’t need to be if you find somebody local. There are so many unemployed wedding videographers that there are plenty who can help you with this. They would spend a half a day with you videotaping and then they have to have really good editing skills though because what you want them to do is put together a collage with background music maybe with cuts with you talking. You can see a whole bunch of examples of these on YouTube if you just Google or YouTube search “plastic surgery introductory videos.” You’ll see lots of them. Some of the doctors you can’t hear them talking at all, there’s a voiceover. Some of them they’re just saying little quips here and there. Some of them are doing full-on. It depends on who you are. At this point this is a fast beat cool introductory video. So, if you’re not great on video do it the other way. Let the editor do the voiceovers and edit you looking fantastic.
So, once you’ve made these YouTube videos there’s a lot you can do. There’s also all sorts of promotional efforts that you can follow up with. So, for example you want to upload your videos also to your website and to specific webpages that make the most sense. So, if you did a video on breast aug scars just make sure you add it to your page for breast aug. That makes sense doesn’t it? Then you want to send an email blast with a link to your videos, to your patient database. Don’t forget about them because they’ll watch the videos and that encourages them to call and visit you again for additional procedures because I think we all know a female, when you fix one body part that she doesn’t like she’s going to move on to the next body part that she doesn’t like. That’s just the way we are.
So, don’t forget about that current list and then you want to use these in social media posts as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram ads. Those will help you gain name recognition and spread the word. Then you can also run the videos on an iPad or a flat screen TV monitor in your exam rooms because what you want is for the prospective patients who are waiting for you, number one you don’t want them to wait too long but if they are waiting you want them to get into your world of who you are, what you’re all about. Videos are the best way to do that because not only are they going to be more educated about your various procedures. You’re going to make them more comfortable and they might even agree to do their own video consultation with you because they’ve seen that so many others have done it with you as well. So, there is a question about do I advertise on YouTube. Just like everything else in today’s world you have to pay to play and you have to figure out where are you going to put your advertising dollars. This takes some techie to help you with this because what you want to do is figure out what your competitors are doing if and just stay local on. Google’s forcing us to stay more local in today’s world and it’s just easier.
It’s easier to get a patient to come to you who lives 10 miles away than 2000 miles away. So, just keep it easy for right now and they can target so much. They know where we live, they know what computer we’re on, they know where that computer is located. So, I would recommend that you stay local. In my opinion the biggest reason to advertise on YouTube is to get your videos to show up on the first page of search results when someone’s looking for a plastic surgeon and you can see this for yourself. When you Google something like tummy tucks scars there’s a whole section of YouTube videos that shows up because remember Google bought YouTube and they’re going to make YouTube successful. They were already crazy successful but now those two together Google and YouTube literally run the whole world. So, when you go there and you see the selection of videos it’s so much more eye catching and visual than a pay-per-click ad, a video is, that it’s much more likely to get clicked on by new perspective patients who now are going to know who you are, they’re going to like what they see and there’s a way better chance they’re going to call you or reach out to you to learn more.
Now your YouTube ads they can cost. Gosh, this is all over the board because it also depends on lots of different things. It can be a cost per view or a cost per click and it’s based on lots of variables. A few of them are the competition for keywords in that area or the demographics or the audience you target. So, we can cost anywhere from five cents to $150 per click. However, it is well worth it if you consider the profit margins built into your plastic surgery services. So, you have to figure out… You know what I would do. I would do a little investigating and when you Google things that patients would see if your competitors are showing up. So, for example let’s say here’s something that happens often. Your competitors only focus on Instagram then you say okay no problem you do Instagram but I’m going to put some focus on YouTube and I’m going to put some money behind it and if nobody else is there locally then you’re the only one there and that could help you with the razor’s edge.
So, if you’re not sure where to start with all this here’s my advice Google it. I Google everything. That is the answer in today’s world. Just Google it. Just type in “YouTube advertising” and all of this step-by-step guidance is just waiting there for you for free. So, once again information in today’s world is free. I used to be able to charge for information and now it’s all free if you notice, in internet marketing we call it the free line has moved but because of that it’s to your advantage. However, here’s the problem. It may be free but it’s not free by time. So, it’s going to take money or time, no doubts about it. We either pay to play or we do it ourselves, that’s all there is to it. So, you have to decide but if you’re going to do it yourself go for it but there’s no shortage of information so just Google it.
Okay, I hope that was helpful. I don’t know if now you’re going to do YouTube advertising but decide and let me know. Subscribe to my channel, it’s “Beauty and the Biz”. Please share this with your staff and your colleagues. Please give me your comments and questions and let me know what you think about it and then you can always follow me on Instagram @catherinemaleymba and I sure would love a review from you. So, I hope that was helpful and I will talk again soon.
We hope you found valuable insight on this episode of “Beauty and the Biz.” For more episodes tools and Catherine’s free book visit www.catherinemaley.com, that’s www.catherinemaley.com and be sure to subscribe to get the latest practice building strategies delivered to you and don’t forget to share this “Beauty and the Biz” podcast with your staff and colleagues.
