Regardless of the economic downturn, cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures increased in 2009 and 2010. They will continue to increase, too, according to experts. An increasing number of nips, tucks and aesthetic alterations were reported by both the American Association of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS) and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) two years in a row. Cosmetic procedures rose to 17 million in 2009 according to AACS, and ASPS released their findings from 2010, revealing 13.1 million altered body parts. So, whether surgeons feel the economic doom or economic boom could really depend on their marketing strategies and deployment. Here are some important marketing tips to help aesthetic surgeons improve their image online and attract more patients.
As a cosmetic or plastic surgeon, you need to market your business to attract more patients and get ahead in a highly competitive industry. Now more than ever, cosmetic and plastic surgeons need to market their practices, dynamically, using multiple outlets to reach expanding target audiences, looking for your services. Now that our society is tech-savvy and mobile, there is a multitude of ways to market your practice and increase outreach.
The days of traditional print, radio, billboard and television advertising are replaced by integrated marketing campaigns that may include traditional methods, but also incorporate web-based marketing and social media platforms. It takes more than public relations and relying on referrals, too.
When it comes to online marketing, just having a web site is not enough, but let's begin there.
As an image maker, how attractive is your website? Design elements and dynamic content matter!
Every month millions of patients search online to learn more about cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures and to find surgeons. When they find your website, they want to learn more about your services, procedures, practice, facilities, medical background, experience, credentials, cases, and they will want to see proof of your expertise. Also, patients will need to navigate through your website with ease to find what they are looking for and make decisions.
Cosmetic and plastic surgeons should have crisp, clean site design features and graphics. Aesthetic surgery is what you do, so your site should be aesthetically appealing. Your website should also contain professional biographical information about the surgeons and staff, in addition it should feature videos, patient testimonials and before and after photos. Patients will spend more time on cosmetic and plastic surgery websites that feature the content they are looking for to make important investment decisions. When surgeons feature dynamic content, such as videos, patients engage and are more likely to make an appointment for a consultation.
Your website is the gateway to patient conversion. Conversely, if your site is lack-luster and outdated or if it does not contain the information and imagery prospective patients desire, then they will keep searching and move on to your competitors, who have more appealing websites and information.
Pretend like you are a patient who is seeking your services, knowing what procedures you perform and what you have to offer, does your website reflect your best? This is important, because many patients do a majority of their research online, and remember they are willing to pay a lot of money to make aesthetic improvements to look and feel their best. Going through your own examination of your website may prove to be an enlightening marketing activity for you to make appropriate nips and tucks to your site, and ultimately, attract more patients to your waiting room.
In order for patients to find you in their cosmetic and plastic surgery quest, surgeons must be visible on Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Depending on whether you are located in a rural community or in a big city, you cannot deny the importance of online visibility. Surgeons must be visible and present online to increase their exposure, credibility and income streams. Google is the dominant search engine, by far, but being highly visible on Google, Bing and Yahoo is important to your image and your practice.
It is a good combination to follow these four simple steps to gain ranking in search engines:
• Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website. Make sure your webmaster, web developer and manager incorporate keywords and HTML-based Meta tags and descriptions to help you rank on search engines and attract patients for the keywords and procedures you offer.
• Google dictates online search trends, and when they make programming changes, like Caffeine and Panda Updates to re-organize and rank sites, you may notice an impact on your placement. There are many affordable, organically ranked online cosmetic and plastic surgeon marketing directories and guides that pay attention to updates to keep up with the trends, and hold their own in the top three positions. Sign up for cosmetic and plastic surgery directories to help you increase your exposure and visibility online, and add powerful links to your site. By investing in highly ranked surgeon directories, you will appear at the top for popular procedures, where they rank, and improve your link-building efforts. Google offers a lot of free tools and resources to help you, too.
• Online Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is also important, but it can be expensive. Rank globally on national directories and sites for key procedures, and invest in local PPC for your practice or clinic to maximize marketing outcomes.
• Claim your Google Place, and it will populate with reviews that are already written and submitted about your practice. This is a free service and your Google Place will appear at the top when patients search for you.
Search Engine Optimization, key words and meta-tags make a big difference in your ranking. Adding features like video links, articles, news, updates and other content can add to your online visibility as well.
Vertical web directory and listing management best practices:
For every cosmetic and plastic surgery procedure, there is a vertical market and many online directories and guides that specifically target patients using search engines to learn about procedures, surgeons, products and services.
The Yellow Pages and print ads used to let our fingers do the walking, but now more than 85% of your business should be coming from online queries. Many cosmetic and plastic surgery marketing companies invest millions in infrastructure to make sure people can find you.
Search Engine Optimization requires constant attention to stay ahead of the curve and maintain ranking for the right key words – the ones that consumers are actually using to find you and the procedures you offer. One of the best investments any cosmetic or plastic surgeon can make is in online web directories and guides.
High ranking, informative web directories and guides attract prospective patients to you and your practice if you are a listed physician or surgeon. If you do sign up for cosmetic and plastic surgery directories, make sure you can track the business that comes from them. Google Analytics is a free tool that helps you build a dashboard to view daily, weekly and monthly traffic, unique visitors, where they come from and the length of time they spend on your site. In addition, if you have a company that manages your website, they more than likely offer tracking features for your website to help you gauge your online marketing ROI.
Just one viable patient lead can pay for your annual listing on one or several high ranking directories. Just imagine if you received 50 viable leads in a few months and how that would impact your income streams?
The best way for patients to find you is to be "everywhere" online, not just on your designated website.
Amplify your business with interactive publicity and social media to get the word out!
Public relations can be one of the least expensive ways to market your practice and get added publicity in print and online. As a plastic or cosmetic surgeon, it is in your best interest to share "cutting-edge" techniques, new procedures and patient transformation stories.
Think about different ways to engage audiences and the media and then release it. There are new ways to integrate PR and social media platforms to shorten your message and engage the media and prospective patients. Check out free online PR and social media marketing applications and distribution tools to help you gain attention. Just search the web and you can find many tips for writing a press release or participating in social media. Just make sure that your content is relevant and of interest in the industry or to the audience you are targeting.
There are other PR platforms that have more features, like adding SEO to your release and writing press releases that feature your social media links. Many PR outlets charge for these services, but they offer a lot of extras that will help you prepare press releases, target audiences, distribute, monitor and measure your return.
Social media is the fastest growing trend for success!
When social media made its entrance into the online world, it was a big concept for a lot of professionals to wrap their heads around. Now, look at how the media and the world has adapted. It just makes good common sense (and cents) to invest in building your online presence with social media tools, such as: Facebook, Twitter and the many other outreach platforms.
Social media is a great way to increase your brand identity in the aesthetic marketplace. Obviously, Facebook and Twitter are the most popular. It is simple, just create a professional Facebook and Twitter account for your cosmetic or plastic surgery practice. You can also assign a staff member to handle your social media needs. It requires daily monitoring, depending on how many social media tools you decide to implement. Besides, why not jump on the social media train … it's free to start!
You would be surprised how many people are proficient in using social media. It is worth the time and here is why.
Twitter: What is twitter? If you must ask, Twitter is one of the fastest ways to connect and grow your cosmetic or plastic surgery practice and engage prospective patients. It is a free social networking and micro-blogging service which enables you and your staff to broadcast short messages (limited to just 140 characters) to your collective list of followers in real-time. Just visit Twitter.com and see if the name of your clinic or a similar name that represents your practice or brand is available. Select the name, pick a password and sign up. Once you create your account, you can customize your page.
After creating your Twitter account, find people to follow and create a sign up sheet at your clinic to have patients and people follow you. This is the way you build your Twitter presence and increase your Twitter follower-base.
After that, it is as simple as 1,2,3 – start posting seasonal specials, tips, open-house announcements, scheduled demos, video links, blog update links, and links to your site or cosmetic and plastic surgery news updates. As a cosmetic or plastic surgeon, you may want to follow groups, associations and medical entities to get industry updates. Also, don't forget the media.
Follow local media reps covering the health, beauty and medical industry. Follow fashion and celebrity magazines, too. The more the merrier. Hopefully, your information will be compelling enough so they will follow you!
Facebook: Facebook is now a house-hold name as widely known as Google. Facebook is a free social networking site specifically designed for users to create profiles and connect with people and friends to send messages and post photos and information.
Facebook has grown immensely in popularity since it launched in 2004. It started out as a unique social networking tool for friends and family to connect and has grown to be a more popular site for businesses and professionals to attract people to their brand.
Again, signing up for Facebook is simple. If you have a personal Facebook account, you need to use a separate email address to create a professional profile for your cosmetic or plastic surgery practice. Once you visit Facebook.com and sign up, then create your business profile, using the name of your practice or clinic. You can post information about your practice, photos, your website, mobile uploads and much more.
Connect and build your practice by featuring special offers and announcements, then get people to "Like" what you are posting.
Some other social media features include: event invitations, discussion groups and forums. Have your office staff include a sign up sheet for your social media sites and email campaigns when they visit your offices.
Linked in and Plaxo: If you have not already signed up for Linked in or Plaxo, visit their sites: Linkedin.com and Plaxo.com to sign up and create your professional profile. Your profile will look more like a professional resume. These platforms are more business oriented social networking sites. They are a good way to connect with colleagues, professionals and business associates, clients and build a stronger network of contacts.
They are also a great way to get involved with forums and discussion groups based upon topics. As a cosmetic or plastic surgeon, you may want to participate in professional discussion groups or forums to share best practices and expertise, discuss new technologies and procedures, get feedback on manufacturers or find out new marketing strategies that work. These are great networks to share knowledge, ideas and opportunities.
To blog or not to blog … that is the question?
Blogs are great, if you have a lot to say, and you probably do. Time management is usually the biggest considerations for surgeons who want to blog, because it can seem time-consuming. You can pick and choose what you blog about and how often you post a blog.
There are many popular blog sites. Wordpress and Blogger are both free if you sign up for a basic blog. If you sign up with Blogger, you need to have a Google Gmail account, because it is a Google tool. Signing up is simple. You visit either Wordpress.com or Blogger.com (or any other free blog site) and sign up using your email address. See if your business name or the related name of your choosing is available. Make sure the name is relevant to the content and topics you will be writing about.
Once you sign up, you can pick a template or customize your own. After you set up your account and blog, share your thoughts and knowledge with the world. Here is another option. You may have your web master create a link from your web-site directly to a blog application or a blog account, so it will be a part of your existing web site.
This can be good for your ranking, because the more you update your blog, the more Google and other search engines recognize that your site content is changing. Search engines like new content. They actually seek it out.
Again, an alternative to having your own blog is to join discussion groups and forums that allow you to share your professional opinion or post comments to other people's blogs – without having to actually manage it . It always helps to ask you professional peers about blogs and if they incorporate them into their web activity. In addition, it always helps to check out your competition and see what they are doing to gauge your interest in such an endeavor.
Broadcast your business on YouTube – get your own channel!
Cosmetic and plastic surgery success depends upon imagery. People want to see what they are going to get from their investment, before they buy. The most successful cosmetic and plastic surgeons have YouTube accounts and channels to feature their videos and expertise.
Many surgeons create YouTube channels and post guest speaker appearances, surgeries, introductory videos and their news stories. Having your own YouTube channel is a great way to add exposure for your cosmetic or plastic surgery practice or clinic.
When prospective patients search the Internet for surgeons, they look for videos that feature specific surgeries and techniques that interest them. Cosmetic and plastic surgeries are a large investment for most people. Since they cannot "test drive" the vehicle, they want the closest thing, which is to view the outcome of the surgical techniques via videos. As a cosmetic or plastic surgeon, chances are, a prospective patient may select your competitor in your area over you if he or she features video links that show the empirical fruits of their surgical talents and labor. In addition, if you subscribe to online web directories or guides, YouTube channels and videos enhance your profile and compel visitors to click on your listing over your competitors.
To create your YouTube account, visit Youtube.com to set up an account. If you have a Google or Gmail account, use your Google or Gmail address to create a YouTube channel account. Your Google account, password and information may already be pre-populated in your browser, which will make the process easier, depending on your browser (Firefox, Explorer or Chrome, for example). The browser set up depends on whether you are using a Mac or a PC. Be sure to select the right option upon set up. You can also visit Google to learn how to upload videos and customize your YouTube Channel account.
Aesthetic surgeons need internet marketing to propagate their business!
The world-wide-web is a dynamic, ever-changing and global sales-force that can work on your behalf, 24/7. The rules of ranking and online visibility can be won with content and lots of it.
The best way to maximize your marketing efforts is to invest in it and become a more present and integral part of this big, moving, mobilized machine that drives patient traffic to your business for you. As a cosmetic or plastic surgeon, like any other business, keep in mind … content is still king!
Content, imagery, exposure and ranking dictate demographic demands, so the more appealing, prolific and informative content you have the better chances you have with your online marketing success.

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