Marketing Plastic Surgery Procedures
Plastic surgeons, as well as other specialties and corporations, want to capitalize on the growing demand for cosmetic rejuvenation.
Marketing cosmetic surgery effectively takes strategy. Learn the ins and outs of how to easily make your practice the best choice in the eyes of prospective patients.
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Marketing Plastic Surgery Procedures
Plastic Surgery is a lucrative business that makes it difficult when marketing your services.
Plastic surgeons, as well as other specialties and corporations, want to capitalize on the growing demand for cosmetic rejuvenation.
This means patients have more choices now than ever before so marketing cosmetic surgery effectively takes strategy.
But you have to know no marketing method works all the time or every time.
People change, the media changes, tastes change so marketing for plastic surgery procedures needs to be strategic.
Different long- and short-term messages and marketing channels must be tried and tested until you get the results you’re looking for.
So Here are pointers to do smart marketing so you spend less and get a better result:
Define Your “Preferred Plastic Surgery Patient” First
When marketing through mass media channels, you are talking to everybody and nobody. You’ve probably heard the saying, “You can’t be everything to everybody.”
All plastic surgery patients are not created equal.
You have to consider different generations’ ages, ethnicities, genders, social-economics and consumer trends.
Target marketing is necessary, so you focus in order to save money and get a good result.
Cater to the group you consider your preferred cosmetic surgery patients, whether it be a particular age group or procedure.
Learn the demographics and needs of that group. And, be where they are on the Internet,
the news sources they follow, the blogs they read and so on.
This is important because only a certain percentage of the population will invest in cosmetic enhancement so they must self-identify they are interested in your services by clicking on your blog, podcast, ad, banner, article, before/after photos, reviews and directories.
By marketing plastic surgery to the right niche market, you’ll be more profitable. You won’t waste your effort, time or money by throwing out your message to consumers who have no interest in your services
And here’s a good tip: Marketing should Start with Your Current Patients
While you’re waiting for your mass media marketing strategies to take hold, implement some “fast-acting” marketing projects that give you revenues now.
Start with your current cosmetic surgery patient base. They already know, like and trust you. That means they’re much more apt to respond to your marketing efforts and bring you new patients.
Your current patients are also your lowest-hanging fruit since a patient who wants to look good today, will want that again and again, so keep in touch.
Use these marketing mix strategies to cross-promote comparable procedures and treatments and encourage patient referrals:
Facebook Advertising
Use your current patient email list in your Facebook audiences when setting up a Facebook ad campaign.
This way, your current cosmetic patients will see you in their Facebook stream. That alone may compel them to reach out to you or, at least, like and share your posts and ads with their friends on Facebook.
You also want to add your own patient list as a “look-a-like” audience in your ad campaign.
Facebook will analyze your patient list to send your ad to others that mirror the similarities of your current patients.
Social Media Booth
Set up a corner of your office as your social media booth.
Order a customized back drop stand with your logo and Website on it so all photos and videos show your contact information in the background.
Now every visiting patient can sing your praises to their social media friends by taking photos with you and your staff.
You can also interview them about their experience with you and then forward the video to them so they can upload it to THEIR social platforms and you can do the same on your social platforms.
Patient Email Marketing
Email marketing still wins, hands down, over social media when it comes to reach, interaction and results.
Because unlike social media, you have more time and space to get your message across.
It is still, by far, the fastest, cheapest and most effective way to stay in touch with your patients.
Make your practice emails eye-catching, fun, informative and always include special offers with a tight expiration date so patients respond now.
I highly recommend you email twice a month, so you stay “top of mind” to your patients, but don’t overwhelm them and allow them to easily opt-opt.
Social media Posts
Repurpose your email design into social posts for Facebook, Instagram and any other social platform you use to grow your audience.
There’s no need to start over from scratch. Use the same graphics and copy from your email so no matter how patients and their friends see you, they will see consistency and repetition in your branding and messaging.
And, if you’re getting likes on your post, boost it with $10 to get it in front of other prospective cosmetic patients.
Word-of-mouth Referral Program
Offer an easy way for your patients to refer their friends and family.
If you need help with that, check out www.KiSSRewardsClub.com. It’s my own platform that works like a charm.
The best referrals will always come from satisfied cosmetic patients who were treated well and who got a great result.
But here’s the secret….When they do refer someone to you, thank them and show your appreciation for their support.
Because when you make someone feel appreciated, they want to help you even more.
And lastly, you want to Track Results When Marketing
Make sure your staff asks every new patient how they heard about you.
There’s plenty of technology to help you do this. You can code your ads, use a special telephone line or have cosmetic patients present a message for the special offer you mentioned in your patient emails, social posts and ads.
Regularly pull reports to determine where your marketing results are coming from because that’s where you want to invest your marketing budget.
Don’t guess. Take the emotion and anecdotes out of it and look at the numbers since they are facts – not fiction.
So the point is, when marketing plastic surgery procedures, it takes different messages, different formats and consistency and a ton of repetition to connect with your current patients as well as your new preferred cosmetic patients so you catch them when they are ready for cosmetic rejuvenation.
Because if they aren’t ready for your services today, they will be three, six, nine months from now and you want to be there.
If you could use some help with this, let’s talk.
Transcript:
Beauty and the Biz
Ep.77: Marketing Plastic Surgery Procedures
Catherine Maley, MBA: Hello, and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery. I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of your Aesthetic Practice and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and more profits. And today we’re going to talk about Marketing Plastic Surgery Procedures. So, it’s a super lucrative business. And that’s what’s making it difficult when marketing your services, because plastic surgeons, as well as every other specialty, and now the corporations are involved. They all want to capitalize on this growing demand for cosmetic rejuvenation. And you know what else is really interesting? During COVID, didn’t you think it was all going to stop? Like it didn’t feel essential. And if anything, it has absolutely been insane, the absolute desire for cosmetic rejuvenation, and I don’t see it coming to any end here soon.
So, what that means is patients have more choice now than ever before. So, when you’re marketing cosmetic procedures, you have got to be strategic about it so you’re effective. But you have to know no marketing method works all the time or every time. And that’s why you never count on one avenue, you always have to have a whole bunch of polls in the pond. That’s all there is to it. Because people change, and the media changes and tastes change. So, marketing for plastic surgery procedures, it really does need to be strategic. It takes different long and short-term messages and different marketing channels. And you’d have to try and test and try again and test again, until you get the results you’re looking for. And you know what else is really interesting? You’ll get bored of your marketing before the market will, never look at how you feel about it, just look at your numbers and if it’s working, always use something that’s working until it doesn’t work and then think about changing it. So, I’m going to give you some pointers to do smart marketing. So, you spend less and get a better result. And here’s the first strategy, define your preferred plastic surgery patient first. So, when marketing through mass media channels, you’re talking to everybody and nobody, you’ve probably heard the saying, you can’t be everything to everybody. That is so true. Because all plastic surgery patients are not created equal. You have to consider the different generations, ages, ethnicities, genders, social economics, and consumer trends. So, target marketing, it used to be just a fun thing I talked about at meetings, and now it’s absolutely necessary, you have got to focus in order to save money and get a good result. So, you cater to the group, you consider your preferred cosmetic surgery patients. And that’s whether it be a particular age group or procedure. I know whenever I’m consulting, I know surgeons always say I don’t care, I’ll take anybody. And that’s just not how to do it in today’s world when you’re mass advertising. That is way too vague. And you’ll just spend a ton of money and get the wrong people in there. That’s how you have your staff complaining that these are all poor-quality leads, you’re just not targeted enough.
So, once you pick your preferred group, you want to learn their demographics and the needs of that group. But then here’s the secret, you have to be where they are on the internet, you have to be on the news sources they follow, the blogs they read, the social platforms they’re on, it’s so important to find out ‘where are they’. And it’s quite easy to find, you can either ask them or you can Google it, their information is widely available. So, this is important because only a certain percentage of the population will actually invest in cosmetic enhancement. So, they have to be able to self-identify that they’re interested in your services. And they do that by clicking on your blog or your podcast or your ad or a banner you did or an article you wrote or your before and after photos or your reviews or any of the directories you’re on. So, by marketing plastic surgery to the right niche market, you’ll be more profitable. And you won’t waste your effort, time and money by throwing out your message to consumers who just don’t have any interest in your services. Now, here’s a good tip. Marketing should start with your current patients. So, while you’re waiting for your mass media marketing strategies to take hold, implement some fast-acting marketing projects that give you revenues now, and that starts with your current cosmetic surgery patient face. So, they already know, like and trust you, right? That means they’re much more apt to respond to your marketing efforts and they’ll bring you new patients. So, I love that because that’s where a lot of your new patients are going to come from. So, your current patients are also your lowest hanging fruit, since a patient who wants to look good today will also want that again and again. So, keep in touch with them, nurture them, and they’ll come back and bring all their friends and family with them.
So, you want to use these marketing mix strategies to cross promote comparable procedures and treatments and encourage the patient referrals. So, the first one of course is Facebook advertising. The thing about Facebook, I know a lot of people now think that Facebook is just for old people. And it’s just not true. Facebook by I mean hands down is still the most popular social marketing avenue there is, especially when it comes to advertising. They’re the big gorilla in the room. So always start with Facebook advertising. I promise you I’ve tested it to death, Facebook ads win anytime over Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, any of them. So, start there first. So, use your current patient email list in your Facebook audiences when setting up a Facebook ad campaign. Now this way, your current cosmetic patients will see you in their Facebook stream. Now that alone may compel them to reach out to you or at least like and share your posts and ads with their friends on Facebook. Now, you also want to add your own patient list as a lookalike audience in your ad campaign. And what happens when you do that is Facebook will analyze your patient list to send your ad to others, that mirror, the similarities of your current patients. Now another great idea is to have a social media booth. And what you do here is you set up a corner of your office as your social media booth. And you order a customized backdrop stand with your logo and your website on it, hopefully your phone number and your name. And then that way, all photos and videos show your contact information in the background. Now every visiting patient can sing your praises to their social media friends, by taking photos with you and your staff. You can also interview them about their experience with you, and then you forward the video to them. So, they too can upload it to their social media platforms. And you can do the same on your social media platforms. That’s how things go viral. It’s just that sharing aspect of things that you need to encourage.
Now another strategy is patient email marketing. And I’m just telling you right now, email marketing still wins hands down over social media, including Facebook ads when it comes to reach, interaction and results. Because unlike social media, you have more time and space to get your message across. So, it’s still by far the fastest, cheapest and most effective way to stay in touch with your patients. So, you want to make your practice emails, eye catching, fun, informative, and always include something compelling, with a tight expiration date, so patients respond now. Now I highly recommend you email twice a month, so you stay top of mind to your patients. But then you’re not overwhelming them and then allow them to easily opt out if they choose to. Another strategy is social media post, you want to repurpose your email design into social posts for Facebook, Instagram, and any other social platform you use to grow your audience. Now there’s no need to start over from scratch, just use the same graphics and copy from your email. So, no matter how patients and their friends see you, they will see consistency and repetition in your branding and your messaging. Now here’s a secret. If you’re getting likes on that post, you know now these are your free posts. If you’re getting good likes on that, you’re going to notice that not many people saw it because the platforms are strangling your reach. Just boost it, there’s a feature where you can boost. Just boost it for 10 or $20 to get it in front of hundreds of more prospective cosmetic patients than you would without boosting it. Okay. And then of course, you want to have some type of word-of-mouth referral program, offer some kind of easy way for your patients to refer their friends and family, but make it compelling. Now if you need help with that, check out kiss rewards club. It’s my own platform that works like a charm. Now the best referrals will always come from satisfied cosmetic patients who were treated well and who got a great result. But here’s another secret, when they do refer someone to you, thank them and show your appreciation for their support. Because when you make someone feel appreciated, they want to help you even more.
And then lastly, you want to track results when marketing, just make sure your staff as every new patient how they heard about you. Now, there’s plenty of technology to help you do this. You can code your ads, use a special telephone line or you can have cosmetic patients present a message for the special offer you mentioned in your patient emails, or your social posts or your ads. And then you regularly want to pull reports to determine where your marketing results are coming from. Because that’s where you want to invest your marketing budget. And don’t guess, take the emotion and anecdotes out of it and look at the numbers since they’re facts, not fiction. I have to tell you, every time we do this, when I talk to somebody like the surgeon or the staff, I’ll tell you they all start doing that anecdotal thing, they look around. Well, I don’t know, what do you think? I know it’s all coming from Google. And then I asked them to pull the reports. And sure enough, it’s almost always the same. Around half are coming from the internet. The other half are coming from relationships they already have with patients, with affiliates, with– I mean, who knows, but it’s never all Google, you always need a hybrid of everything. So, the point is, when marketing plastic surgery procedures, it does take different messages, different formats. And it takes consistency and a ton of repetition to connect with your current patients as well as your new preferred cosmetic patients, your prospective patients. So, you catch them when they are ready for cosmetic rejuvenation. Because if they aren’t ready for your services today, I promise you they will be three months, six months, nine months from now and you want to be there when they’re ready. So, if you could use help with this, let’s talk. And that’s it. I’m going to wrap it up now for this one. I hope you enjoyed that. Please, if you feel so inclined to go to Beauty and the Biz and subscribe and give me a review, it would be much appreciated. And then of course, if you’ve got any feedback or questions for me, just leave me a message on my website at catherinemaley.com or you can certainly connect with me on social at Instagram and my Instagram is catherinemaleymba. Okay, that’s it for now and talk to you soon.
