There are many marketing techniques available to plastic surgeons, with one of the most important—and least understood—being content marketing.
If your plastic surgery practice marketing doesn’t involve content marketing, you’ll depend on patients to:
- Find the right information on the internet to assuage fears about surgery
- Differentiate your practice from competitors
- Become aware of your brand and services
Keep in mind that patients aren’t going to do all that work for you. Instead, they seek out the most authoritative voice on the subject. If that voice happens to belong to a competing practice, you’re at a major disadvantage. Here we’ll cover the reasons why you need plastic surgery content marketing to help your practice get ahead.
What is content marketing for plastic surgeons?
Content marketing entails using various types of content to connect with target audiences in an effort to convert them into loyal patients. Plastic surgery has some unique content marketing requirements compared to content marketing for cosmetic surgeons. Unlike cosmetic surgery marketing that’s solely focused on enhancing physical features, digital marketing for plastic surgeons will require content that is also focused on restoration and achieving a sense of normality. The ultimate goal of content marketing for cosmetic surgeons and plastic surgeons alike is to generate leads and convert them into patients.
Plastic surgery lead generation entails developing campaigns that touch every step of the marketing funnel. The content that practices create can connect with prospects at every stage of this funnel, from the top of the funnel (TOFU) to the middle of the funnel (MOFU) and the bottom of the funnel (BOFU).
For example, educational content in a blog post could cover a specific type of topic at the TOFU stage, such as reconstructive surgery or breast augmentation. This is when people are conducting initial research around a specific problem and want to learn more about it. Other content at this stage could include social media posts, infographics, eBooks, and other educational content.
Marketing efforts can then lead these readers to a specific solution in the MOFU stage, when people are beginning to look for a specific solution to their problem. At this point, you can begin discussing your services and what differentiates them from the services available at competing practices.
Ultimately, you’ll want to convert leads at the BOFU stage with more details about your offerings. Here, you can begin encouraging people to contact you about an initial consultation.
By developing content that touches on each stage of the funnel, you’ll be able to more efficiently turn your audiences into satisfied patients.
Why is content marketing essential for plastic surgeons?
Content marketing is critical for plastic surgery practices for a number of reasons.
Generate Plastic Surgery Leads
Through the use of high-quality gated content (see below for a definition) that connects with prospects, you can grow your email list. People who find value in your content will be more likely to subscribe to your emails and willingly sign up to be on your contact list. You can then continue marketing to these leads to turn them into patients.
Lead Nurturing
Content marketing involves much more than simply blogging. It entails using informative emails and other types of content to help move prospects down the marketing funnel. Using emails, videos, social media posts, and other content, you can gradually convert more leads.
Increase Web Traffic
By providing Google with search engine optimization (SEO)-optimized content that ranks well, you can increase the number of people who will be exposed to your website. For example, one plastic surgeon in Nevada managed to increase their page-one keywords by over 1,642% using content marketing.
When promoting your content on social media and other platforms, you’ll also be able to receive referral traffic.
Become an Authority
Over time, with strong plastic surgery internet marketing, you can ensure your website gains authority over competitors. As your website develops into the ultimate resource for plastic surgery, you’ll gain a level of credibility. This makes it even easier to generate leads and convert them into patients. From the top of the funnel to the bottom, you’ll be able to educate audiences with rich content and eventually convince them to turn to you for your services.
What types of content should plastic surgeons use?
Whether you engage in marketing for rhinoplasty, reconstructive surgery, breast augmentation, or other types of plastic surgery, you can use many types of content in your strategy. The following are some of the foundational elements of content marketing to include:
Blogs
Blog posts are a great way to assuage fears about plastic surgery, reduce anxieties that patients may have, and answer questions. Each blog post can include a call-to-action (CTA) to access certain types of gated content or a form to generate leads. This brings more people in from the top of the funnel and helps move them along the patient journey. Blogging ultimately performs the tasks of lead nurturing, increasing visibility, and gaining authoritativeness. The key is understanding the fundamentals of blogging and incorporating them into your content.
Before-and-After Photo Galleries
Before-and-after galleries are crucial for plastic and cosmetic surgery marketing. However, through content marketing, you can go beyond just showing before-and-after images and turn each into a case study.
In these case studies, you should have content describing the procedure and tag them with appropriate keywords. If you’re not sure how to go about this, you can always work with an SEO-optimized Photo Gallery creation tool.
Video Marketing
Videos are also essential in content marketing for cosmetic surgeons and plastic surgeons. Video marketing can take away a lot of the stress that often comes with surgical procedures. Additionally, it can increase familiarity by showing videos of specific procedures and your office, including the people on your team.
Gated Content
Gated content is a type of content that people can only access by performing a specific action. Usually, people need to enter basic contact information such as their name and email to gain access to gated content.
There are many forms of gated content that you can use for plastic surgery marketing to build trust and generate leads. Depending on your campaigns, you can use gated content such as:
- Whitepapers
- Checklists
- eBooks
- Case studies
- Webinars
The ultimate goal of gated content is to move the lead down the funnel to a free consultation or a call.
5 Tips for Content Marketing for Plastic Surgeons
If you want to learn more about how to market cosmetic surgery or plastic surgery, here are some tips to optimize your strategy.
Pick Relevant Blog Topics
Don’t simply blog about just any subject. All of your blog topics should be relevant to moving website visitors through your marketing funnel. You can cover specific procedures, preparation guides, and more to educate and win over audiences.
Post Consistently
To get the most from your blog posts, you should publish new content at least three times per month. Google will be more likely to recrawl your website if it sees new content produced consistently. In turn, you’ll be able to increase your rankings more effectively over time.
Spotlight Your Unique Selling Proposition
Many practices will write about why breast augmentation and other procedures are safe. What sets your practice apart from your competitors? Is your practice even more dedicated to safety? Does it use next-generation equipment to increase safety? Consider ways you can differentiate your practice from others to gain a competitive advantage.
Optimize for SEO
Even if you dominate all of the topics in your industry, you need to make sure you’re implementing best search engine optimization (SEO) practices for plastic surgery. Blogging alone can educate readers and move them along the funnel, but you need to make sure you’ve naturally incorporated keywords and internal links. Taking these measures will help further boost your rankings and maximize visibility.
Promote Great Content
Good SEO can only get you so far. If you really want to get great results from your content and increase traffic, don’t wait for Google to take notice of your content. Instead, use social media marketing and other tactics to spread awareness of your content. This will keep your audiences engaged and ensure your content isn’t reliant on search engines alone.
What if you want to outsource your content marketing?
If you don’t have time to become an expert in SEO and content marketing, consider outsourcing content marketing services to experienced professionals. However, working with multiple vendors to cover each aspect of plastic surgery marketing is inefficient.
To grow your plastic surgery practice and establish a strong online presence, turn to the experts at DoctorLogic. We’re a digital marketing agency that provides a full patient acquisition platform geared toward plastic surgery marketing. This includes services that cover SEO, content marketing, reputation management, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, social media management, and HIPAA-compliant website design.
Learn more about our platform by checking out our free demo today.