Regardless of how successful your practice is, attracting new patients is always a challenge. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic increased the number of people who want plastic surgery, bringing them to your clinic still requires a comprehensive approach to digital marketing and lead generation.
Since the journey down the marketing funnel is long and complex, bringing in high-quality leads is the key to improving marketing ROI (Return on Investment). Plastic surgery leads need careful nurturing that starts by honing your lead generation strategy. Let’s take a closer look at successful lead gen tactics for plastic surgery clinics.
What is the plastic surgery marketing funnel?
A marketing funnel is your patient’s journey from the moment they realize they want plastic surgery to the point when they get the surgery and pay for it. It’s the process of turning visitors into leads and turning leads into patients.
The marketing funnel has three main stages:
- Awareness: Top of the funnel (TOFU) – the patient becomes aware of your clinic and your services. At this point, they are doing research to see how your brand matches their needs and finalize what their own needs are.
- Consideration: Middle of the funnel (MOFU) – the patient becomes interested in the services you offer and assesses your practice. At this point, they may read reviews, visit your clinic, and look at before and after photos of your patients.
- Conversion: Bottom of the funnel (BOFU) – the patient schedules a consultation and eventually gets the surgery.
Lead generation is a tactic that accompanies your target audience through all stages of the funnel. It’s crucial during the awareness stage. The better job you do when sourcing qualified leads, the smoother they proceed through the rest of the funnel.
7 Tactics to Drive Leads for Plastic Surgeons
For many companies, 80% of leads never turn into conversions. That makes maintaining a high marketing ROI a challenge. Plastic surgeons have to focus on highly effective lead generation solutions to beat these numbers.
1. Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy that puts your plastic surgery website closer to the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs). At the awareness stage, potential patients are searching for information on the web. Effective SEO tactics make sure this search brings the audience to your virtual doorstep.
SEO practices for plastic surgeons revolve around producing high-quality content and using the right keywords. When patients are thinking about plastic surgery, they are searching for high-quality informative content. That’s where SEO comes in.
Websites located on the first page of Google search get 71% of search traffic clicks. To get there, your marketing team needs to ensure proper keyword use. For example, a person who needs plastic surgery searches for “liposuction Chicago” or “rhinoplasty price.” If your website uses these keywords, it has a higher chance of getting to the first pages of search results.
For example, DoctorLogic’s patient acquisition platform drives organic traffic to your clinic’s website through innovative SEO practices.
2. Social Media Management
Social media management involves collecting data about your target audience through social channels and then using these channels to reach out, generate leads, and make conversions. The top social media channels for plastic surgeons are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Best social media management practices include:
- Posting informative and shareable (for word-of-mouth marketing) content.
- Creating specific strategies for each social media channel (e.g., Instagram is great for visuals and user-generated content while Facebook is excellent for informative content).
- Creating a following and engaging with potential and existing patients.
- Leveraging the power of influencers (people with an excellent reputation for their knowledge of certain subjects).
With two thirds of Americans using social media to search for health information, this lead generation practice is integral to effective plastic surgeon marketing strategies.
3. Website Design
When the potential patient comes to your website, you have an opportunity to drive them down to the bottom of the funnel through several important tactics. They involve:
- Providing top-notch authoritative and accurate content.
- Organizing content efficiently and making it easy to find.
- Making it easy to contact you for a consultation.
- Providing contact details and designing 24/7 contact forms.
- Creating and placing CTA (calls to action) to maximize conversions.
Almost 40% of visitors leave a website if they find it unattractive. DoctorLogic specializes in creating functional, creative, and beautiful plastic surgery website design that powers your lead generation efforts and streamlines conversions.
4. PPC Ads
Paid search tactics are highly effective for generating leads and getting more real estate on search engine result pages. Plastic surgeons can leverage several types of effective paid ads:
- Social ads: ads that appear in feeds and other frequently-visited places on social media platforms. For example, a potential patient who is interested in reconstructive surgery can start seeing your clinic’s ad in the newsfeed.
- Paid search ads: ads that appear on top of the search results in response to the users’ queries on search engines. For example, a person searching for “breast augmentation” or “chemical peel,” will see your ad on top of all search results on Google.
- Display ads: image and video-based ads that appear in front of users as they visit website in response to a particular behavior. For example, if the user constantly researches “facelift” or “mommy makeover,” they are likely to see display ads with before-and-after photos even when they visit unrelated websites.
For plastic surgeons, paid ads are an excellent way to demonstrate their services to the audience and bring them to the website for further conversion efforts.
5. Content Marketing
Content marketing is an integral part of the lead nurturing since it:
- Establishes the authority of your clinic.
- Provides valuable information to potential patients.
- Helps you secure valuable relationships.
- Drives the patient down the marketing funnel.
Since potential plastic surgery patients are hungry for information, you can use a variety of content forms to heat up their interest.
For example, you can consider creating gated content (content that is only available after specific actions such as signing up for a newsletter or sharing contact details). This tactic doesn’t just give you extra information about the potential patient. It helps you design personalized content for e-mail marketing tactics that drive quick conversions.
The key to successful content marketing isn’t just high-quality content. The information you provide must be fresh. This usually involves creating a massive variety of content for your website, social media platform, e-mails, etc.
6. Online Reviews
Today, 72% of patients use online reviews to find the best surgeon for their needs. That’s why sourcing and leveraging reviews are among the top lead generations tactics for your clinic. The best ways to use reviews for led gen are:
- Displaying them on your website, social media accounts, apps, blogs, and anywhere else you see fit.
- Claiming, filling out, and maintaining a high-quality Google Business Profile.
- Responding to each review and using keywords while you do it (to improve SEO practices).
Encourage clients to leave reviews by making it easy for them to do (e.g., giving links to review pages online, asking for reviews in a follow-up e-mail, or hanging QR codes in your clinic).
Negative reviews are just as crucial for your marketing strategy as positive reviews. By making polite and authoritative responses, you let your potential clients know that you care for each outcome and try to do your best to rectify your mistakes.
7. Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) involves increasing the number of visitors who turn into patients after arriving at your website. To optimize your website for conversions, you can:
- Work on design to make it easier to navigate.
- Place clear and actionable CTAs.
- Provide high-quality content.
To implement top CRO practices, you need to study your audience, focus on clarity, and test your content, ads, and website design.
How to Create a Lead Generation Strategy
A comprehensive lead generation strategy is a combination of the above tactics implemented with your practice’s needs, goals, and marketing budget in mind. These tactics can be mixed and matched according to the level of competition, demand, and local audience’s pain points.