It’s the era of digital marketing, and you’re still wondering why your plastic surgery and cosmetic clinic needs marketing?

Well… Here’s what you need to know.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has reported that 1.7 million cosmetic surgical procedures and 14.2 million cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures were performed in 2015. Do you know that there has been a drastic 115% increase in the overall cosmetic procedures over the last 15 years!

We know that means a lot of business for plastic surgeons, but not knowing how to make use of the changing trends keeps you way behind your competitors.

To ensure you’re never left behind, we present you with some tricks on how to reach a wider range of audiences – starting from your neighborhood to across the country.

What’s your target patient for plastic surgery marketing?

It is a common (Mis)understanding that women constitute a major percentage of your patient community. This means a majority of Plastic Surgery clinics are targeting female patients when it comes to marketing.

Despite the fact that women do prefer to undergo cosmetic procedures when compared to men, you need to understand that plastic surgery is becoming more common and accepted in men, especially the younger lot.

Cosmetic procedures are considered a luxury rather than a basic necessity. No wonder more than half of the world’s population would want to trim or shape or replace more than one part of their bodies; however, on average, only 20-25% of them will have the privilege, money, and time to make this happen. Well, you know why!

This means target marketing should not be restricted to gender, but age and demographics among others – to identify the target patient base and their preferred treatment niche.

Hence, when we talk about marketing strategies, we refer to your patient community in general, but not women in particular.

Plastic Surgery Patient Segmentation

Market segmentation can be done in a variety of ways, depending on how you want to segment them, but the three most popular ways are demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, and psychographic segmentation.

Demographic segmentation

Because demographic segmentation is often the most essential factor for defining target audiences, knowing demographic data is critical for many firms. Demographic segmentation is based on measurable data, such as:

• Gender
• Age
• Level of income
• Relationship status
• Education
• Race
• Religion

Geographic segmentation

Geographic segmentation is based on the idea that certain groups of consumers in a given location may have distinct product or service needs.

Geographic segmentation is the process of segmenting a market according to its location. One example is home addresses, however, depending on the extent of your business, you could also use:

• Neighborhood
• ZIP or postal code
• Zip code
• City
• State or province
• Region
• Country (if your business is international)

Psychographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation separates the target market into several groups depending on socioeconomic status or lifestyle choices. From the rich and highly educated to those with lower educational statuses at the bottom, the socioeconomic scale spans the globe.

Values, beliefs, and interests are all included in the lifestyle preferences categorization. Persons who favor an urban lifestyle over a rural or suburban one, pet lovers, or people concerned about environmental problems are also examples.

Psychographic segmentation is based on the assumption that people’s purchase decisions reflect their lifestyle preferences or socioeconomic status.

Do not target financial goals, attract patients instead!

Unlike other industries, the healthcare industry needs to focus on the stakeholders first, rather than trying to achieve financial goals. The strategy is quite straightforward – when you gain trust among your patients, profits will automatically follow!

Hence, Word-of-mouth marketing means a lot to your business rather than content-heavy advertisements and campaigns.

Always ask your patients to speak out – send them feedback forms, request for reviews on social media platforms, and testimonials on your business website or Facebook page. You never know how far a single FB or Twitter post can reach! This takes your marketing to the next level and keeps your business growing.

Other review sites for plastic surgeons

While there are several websites that allow consumers to review plastic surgeons, you should concentrate your efforts on a few crucial ones, like:

• Google
• Yelp
• Vitals
• Facebook
• Healthgrades
• Realself

When you start getting good reviews on some of these sites, make sure you tell your patients about them. These sites also make leaving reviews simple. This is important since most individuals will not want to waste time wading through a maze of pages only to post a review about you and your clinic.

Don’t keep good reviews to yourself

You’re sure to get some fantastic feedback over time. These will not only make you happy, but they will also serve as great promotional materials for your cosmetic surgery marketing campaign. You’ll want to highlight your positive reviews by scattering small quotes from them throughout your marketing materials. This can be done on your website, your social media pages, blogs, emails, and other places.

These testimonials can also be used in marketing materials to promote a specific treatment or product discussed in the review. Another idea is to develop your own testimonials or review page on your own website. If you want to share a patient’s story, get their permission first and then prepare a case study.

Preserve your current patient base

Unlike other medical conditions, cosmetic procedures do not always require regular follow-ups, thereby making your patients not visit you again and again. If you did not bother to keep in touch, then there is a greater chance that your old (ex-)patients do not remember you anymore!

To prevent this, you can follow some simple and quick marketing strategies like maintaining a record of their birthdays and anniversaries, sending automated greeting cards and messages to their email address; or you can go an extra mile, and send them personalized email newsletters related to the treatment they have undergone at your clinic.

An email newsletter is one of the most preferred marketing strategies for large businesses. Too many emails can annoy your customers, though. Always ensure that there is a reasonable gap between each mailer.

Email marketing for plastic surgeons

Many practitioners make the mistake of believing that email is obsolete and pointless. This is simply not true. This is a classic marketing tactic that, when utilized correctly, can still be effective. Your email marketing plan should be used in combination with your website and social media pages. It can be used to nurture leads and aid in the targeting of a certain set of prospects.

How to write emails that convert

The contents of an email should be geared to convert readers into leads. You want to make sure that when your email appears in someone’s inbox, they will want to open it. A strong subject line is the start of this. Make it memorable and unique. You should also make sure that the content in your email provides value. Always keep in mind that your recipient will only read your email for a few seconds at most. Make it matter. You will be wasting your time if you include a lot of fluff.

Inserting links to your website or blog in appropriate areas throughout the email is another component of email conversion. This will get you the visitors you want when it matters most. It’s also crucial to make a strong call to action. Give the reader a reason to open and read your email. Many individuals will follow through on an actionable request.

Plastic Surgery email marketing tips

Here are a few more tips to consider while you prepare your next email:

• Check to see whether you have a healthy list of subscribers. This entails knowing whether or not these emails are active and aren’t bots.
• Send out group emails and highlight one-time promotions or special deals.
• Make use of an automated email platform that can supply you with thorough email analytics and conversion rates. It’s crucial to know how many individuals have read your email and how many of them have clicked on your different links and calls to action.
• Offer incentives to patients who have proved their loyalty to your practice.
• You can also send emails to certain demographic groups by segmenting them. Target readers based on their age, treatment type, income background, and other factors.

These are just a few tips that can help you improve your email conversion rates. Take the time to make sure you’re getting the most out of every email you send to your mailing list.

Enhance your free consultations for your potential plastic surgery patients

While this is a common practice across most businesses, free consultation in a Plastic Surgery clinic should be coupled with a preview of ‘before and after’ looks. Using advanced digital technology, not only can you remove a patient’s inner fear of disappointing results but also provide assurance while helping them visualize their future look.

You can even consider launching a free consultation week in your neighborhood to attract a larger group of future patients.

All of this contributes to a better patient experience. You’re providing patients value and a reason to trust you. And as we all know, that’s a big deal when it comes to patient experience.

Other things you can do to enhance patient experience are:

Improve your online user experience

Your website has to be a valuable resource for your healthcare customer, who has higher expectations than ever before. That involves focusing on patients at all phases of their care using a patient-centered approach. The internet has become a vital aspect in making health decisions for today’s technologically savvy healthcare customers.

Make sure your website is easy to access and navigate, has a solid SEO strategy, and offers engaging, patient-focused content. Provide online appointment scheduling, a patient support chatbot, SMS reminder alerts, and telehealth doctor appointments.

Prioritize your content

Health information needs to be relevant, accurate, and well-sourced at a time when consumers are unsure if they can trust what they read. The content must also be compelling. Keep it simple, digestible, and presented in an engaging way that works well on mobile devices for today’s audience.

Provide patients with the information and support they need to make informed decisions and take an active role in their treatment. Create content like “Post-surgery care” or “What you need to know before getting liposuction.” A great user experience is enhanced by well-structured and easily accessible content.

Manage your public image

To demonstrate to existing and potential patients that you are engaged and appreciate their opinion, respond to all reviews, whether positive or unfavorable. Implement an email marketing campaign that follows up with patients after their treatment and asks them to review you on prominent consumer sites or social media networks. These testimonials will boost your search engine rankings.

Mark your plastic surgery practice’s presence on Social Media Platforms

Create and manage a Facebook page, Twitter handle, and LinkedIn business page and send out marketing email newsletters. If you are assuming that any of these quick and easy solutions are just enough to market your Plastic Surgery clinic, well, you are sailing on the wrong ship!

Almost all businesses make use of social media platforms for branding and marketing. Hence, it is important to identify your wow factor and focus on that part of the story.

For example, you can make use of Facebook Paid Advertising and Google Adverts to create a wider online presence. Having said that, relying on SEO, SMM, and content marketing techniques is a much-needed add-on!

You need to choose the right marketing strategy depending on the size of your business, as well as your long-term goals.

How plastic surgeons can use social media

As mentioned, social media marketing can be beneficial for your practice in several ways. Choose which of the following tactics works best for you and your plastic surgery practice:

• Promoting limited-time offers.
• Incorporating links to your website’s content.
• Answer questions about plastic surgery treatments that are often asked.
• Show before and after photos.
• Conduct several surveys and competitions.
• Promote aesthetic healthcare on Instagram.
• Use Twitter to make short announcements to all of your followers.
• Invite your Facebook friends to various events. You can also use your Facebook page to share content. Remember to keep your personal and professional Facebook pages separate.
• Use TikTok to share videos, hold Q&A sessions with your audience, conduct interviews, and distribute news.
• Use YouTube to create short videos that explain a treatment or discuss different products or procedures that your clinic offers. Please refrain from recording the surgery itself.
• Implement a targeted ad strategy using social media.

These are just a handful of the numerous ways that social media can help you advertise your plastic surgery practice. It’s crucial to be visible and attentive. Don’t just post a piece of content one day and forget about it for a year. That communicates the wrong message. Staying active will help you build a following and generate leads.

Plastic Surgery Social Media Marketing Tips:

• Every plastic surgeon who wants to generate revenue from social media should publish every day with a clear purpose in mind.
• A blended strategy of engaging and conversion-driven social media content is the most successful technique to draw new patients from social media and into the clinic.
• Every conversion-focused article should be linked to a specific landing page on the practice’s website, with clear calls to action for patients to give their information.

Start your plastic surgery marketing journey!

With all of these new opportunities, it’s never been a better time to be in the field. The future is bright so you’ll want to start building up your practice now and implementing an effective plastic surgery marketing strategy that will attract more patients years down the line.

The modern-day private surgeon has to be able not only to practice their craft but also market themselves for them to succeed. Marketing today takes on many forms, including digital marketing which is all about building up your brand awareness and gaining insights into what prospects might need before they eventually choose you as a surgeon.

Whenever you’re ready to start your plastic surgery marketing, Just Digital is the place to go. We have years of experience in helping practices like yours succeed in the digital marketing game.

Contact us here to talk about your marketing needs and we’ll provide you with further information about our services. We’re excited to work with you!