Plastic Surgery Lead Generation
In today’s world, lead generation is important in every field or industry as a way for companies to attract potential clients that are interested in specific products and services. This includes plastic surgery as the United States has the largest number of plastic surgeons globally as of 2020, totaling about 7,000 surgeons. Due to that, competition can be tough, and lead generation solutions are important to help attract your target audience with the goal of turning them into customers.
A Fast Growing Industry
In early 2022, The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) released their survey results for 2021 where there is a high demand for plastic surgery procedures as face-to-face socialization and in-person events resumed. This is in line with the projection where the global cosmetic surgery market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6% in the 2021 to 2028 period.
It is reported that 83% of AAFPRS surgeons are seeing an increase in bookings, performing an average of 600 more procedures than the previous year, a 40% increase. Some of the most common procedures that are part of the upsurge are cosmetic surgery procedures such as rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, facelifts, fillers, liposuction, neurotoxins, and hair transplants.
Many surgeons indicate that the surge is because patients have more time and flexibility to recover from treatments due to working from home. This is an important factor as cosmetic procedures are elective and are often done for aesthetic purposes compared to plastic surgery where it includes both cosmetic and reconstructive surgery.
With more places reopening, there is also much anxiety of re-entering society after about two years behind filtered social media lenses. Since social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are firmly embedded in our daily culture, there is an increase in the trend for people seeking cosmetic surgery to look better on screen as the pressures of a virtual lifestyle impact the way we view and present ourselves. Now more than ever, patients are motivated to indulge in the “tweaks'' they have been longing for. This is supported by the data where 83% of AAFPRS plastic surgeons say at least 75% of their work is facial plastic surgery.
Among patients, many respondents have said that staying home has led to more money saved, hence more disposable income from the lockdown during the pandemic. With mask-wearing recommendations to stay even as mask mandates are taken down, more patients are asking for cosmetic surgery on their eyelids.
The 2021 AAFPRS survey has reported that patients’ number one concern is to be able to find a doctor they can trust followed by the possibility of having an unnatural looking result after the procedure. With the uptick of people looking for plastic surgery, this is the best time for plastic surgeons to look into acquiring leads that have the potential to convert into new patients.
Lead Generation Strategies For Plastic Surgeons
Lead generation is the process that accompanies your target audience throughout the marketing funnel and is especially crucial in the beginning stages. The better quality your leads, the more likely they are to proceed through the marketing funnel.
A lead is a potential client that you can acquire using various lead generation strategies such as paid advertising, social media, and more. Compared to regular leads, qualified leads are those who already know basic information about you and your business, making them the most likely to convert or make a purchasing decision.
In the plastic surgery marketing funnel, there are three stages. At the top of the funnel, a potential client becomes aware of your clinic and services. Those at the middle of the funnel are patients who are interested and start researching your services by reading reviews and looking at before and after photos. At the bottom of the funnel, your leads are scheduling a consultation. Here are some great strategies to obtain high quality leads:
Social Media
One of the best methods for plastic surgeons to generate leads is by using social media channels as it offers you the chance to share pictures. This is important as most of your clients who are seeking cosmetic surgery look for visual appeal. You can also use keywords and hashtags to create a cohesive and visually appealing profile to attract prospects. With 67% of Americans turning to social media to search for health information, social media platforms are integral for plastic surgeons to acquire leads.
For example, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are some of the most popular platforms for social media marketing. Some great ways to generate leads for your practice would be to pay for Facebook ads, Instagram ads, offer discounts or coupons, share blog content, announce giveaways, or even host a contest. Due to their popularity, your business will also benefit from a Facebook Business Page and an Instagram landing page. These platforms also allow you to track metrics.
Ad Campaigns
Paid ad campaigns or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising campaigns can significantly boost brand awareness, visibility, and generate quality leads. These ad campaigns such as Google Ads allow you to focus on your ideal clients by creating a targeted ad that brings the client to a curated landing page where you can get your leads to answer questions, opt for emails, offer consultations, testimonials, and more. It also allows for location targeting.
Since Google Ads campaigns dominate 83.09% of the search engine market share in the USA, it makes sense to choose Google as the advertising platform for your plastic surgery practice. With eight different types of ad campaigns available on the platform, cosmetic surgeons would benefit the most from ads that have a visual context as most of the services focus on visual appeal. Some examples that can be effective for plastic surgeons include:·
Search Ads – These ads appear on the top of search results, guaranteeing visibility when users input queries on search engines. For example, a person searching for “rhinoplasty” or “breast augmentation” will see your ad on top of all other Google results if you choose to advertise for these services. ·
Display Ads – As previously mentioned, plastic surgeons benefit immensely from visual based ads. This means display ads that are image and video based are perfect as they appear in front of your target audience. For example, users who research “facelift” are likely to see your before and after photos even when visiting other websites.
Your Google Ad can also be linked directly to the information your leads seek instead of just the homepage. PPC ads are the best way to generate leads as the results are instantaneous with metrics that can be tracked easily to ensure that you are allocating your ad spend properly.
Website Design or Landing Pages
When a potential patient visits your website, it is important to have an optimized and well-designed site. This means an easy to navigate site and providing authoritative and accurate content that is organized. Here are some tips when it comes to your website:·
•Design – While landing pages were once mostly text, you can now make them more attractive by adding photos and videos. This is important as surveys have shown that 40% of visitors leave a website if they find it unattractive.
• Call to Action - Your plastic surgery website should include calls to action (CTAs) to maximize conversion rates.
•Forms – Having a simple and clear form is a great way to get leads. By keeping it concise, you will see more visitors sign up. Additionally, you should make it easy for your patients to contact you for a consultation and allow them to provide their contact information so you can get back to them.
• Highlight Benefits – This is one of the most important aspects that your leads are looking for. Highlight the benefits your services can bring such as making them feel more confident or restoring function.
• A/B Test – Everything has to be A/B tested on your website. This means to compare headlines, video placement, content, CTA buttons, and more to determine a version of your website that resonates best with your target audience.
Content Marketing
When it comes to content marketing, content is king. Every credible plastic surgery practice website should have good content, and this can be done by having a blog as it not only helps to boost your firm’s authority in the industry, it also helps to increase trust among your clients, cements your brand, and improves your online presence.
For blogging to be successful, you must commit to an editorial schedule. Once your blog post is published, you can share it on social media accounts or via your newsletter. Remember that good and relevant blog content combined with keyword research is key. You can also arrange for other healthcare professionals and plastic surgeons to do a guest blog to get new and fresh content.
The combination of optimized content, search engine optimization (SEO), and link building can help your site rank better on a search engine results page (SERP). In fact, websites on the first page of Google search gets 71% of search traffic clicks. While the aim is to appear on the first page of search results, it takes considerable time and effort to understand Google’s algorithms and requirements. Generally, factors such as keywords used, page loading speed, and quality of the copy can boost your rankings on SERP.
Although many business owners prefer the above methods compared to PPC marketing campaigns as it is “free”, keep in mind that it will take much time and effort before you see results. Since Google changes their algorithms often, the SEO practices you learnt today may be obsolete in the future.
Email Marketing
Another great way to get leads for your plastic surgery practice is through email marketing. It also provides you the opportunity to stay in touch and engage with your leads. Be sure to prevent your leads from unsubscribing by providing something of value such as relevant content, special offers, exclusive news, discounts, and more. For a relatively low cost, email marketing is very useful as automation allows you to send emails as scheduled. You can also tailor the content for more stubborn leads to make them more receptive.
Online Reviews
Today, 72% of patients find surgeons based on online reviews. Equivalent to the modern-day word of mouth, good testimonials and reviews not only help to generate leads, they also help to build trust and encourage leads to give you a chance. To use your reviews for lead generation, you can display them on your social media accounts, website, and anywhere else you can. It also helps to respond to each review by using keywords.
To obtain online reviews, plastic surgeons can encourage patients to leave testimonials through follow up emails or by hanging QR codes in the clinic. For negative reviews, make authoritative and polite responses to ensure potential clients know that you care and will try your best to rectify any mistakes.
DDM Generation’s Approach To Plastic Surgery Lead Generation
When it comes to plastic surgery lead generation, a comprehensive strategy consisting of a combination of the methods above along with your practice’s needs and marketing budget in mind is the best way to achieve your business goals. These tactics should be based on your target audience and competitors.
Before finalizing your lead generation strategy, you should have an in-depth understanding of your target audience by analyzing the data available. Since lead generation for plastic surgery can be immensely time consuming, DDM Generation is a digital marketing agency that has an experienced team prepared to help you achieve your goals, using search engine marketing (PPC ads).
At DDM Generation, our team of experts understand the ins and outs of the industry. Powered by data, we analyze your competition, target audience, your practice’s needs, and goals before implementing a tailored lead generation strategy on search engine such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Learn about our paid search services and how we use marketing analytics to optimize campaigns for maximum efficiency. Going above and beyond, our personalized process means we spend time with you and your team to ensure you achieve your business goals, leaving you to focus on your medical practice while we bring new patients to you. Here are some ways on how we make a difference:
Research
DDM Generation is a company with data at our core. This means we believe in the numbers. In the research stage, we analyze your playing field, competitors, and competitor lead generation strategies. We take into consideration your budget and focus on the best methods that will ensure the best return on investment (ROI).
Strategy, Planning, & Implementation
In this stage, our team works with you and your cosmetic surgery practice to clarify your objectives. No matter your objectives, we will strive to collaborate and develop the best plan to accomplish your goals. Once we reach an agreement, we implement a personalized lead generation strategy for your plastic surgery practice.
Tracking & Optimization
To ensure that you are achieving your goals while maximizing the potential of your budget, we collect data to track which methods are working best for you. This means we will be consistently monitoring your lead generation efforts and reallocating funds to strategies that are working best for your practice. In fact, you will be able to see where your budget is going as we regularly share this information through reports.