Content Marketing for Plastic Surgeons – Improve Conversions

According to Plastic Surgery.org, in 2020, the total number of cosmetic surgery procedures performed in the United States was 2,314,720. Plastic surgery, like many other industries, is likely to surge in post-pandemic times. This is a great time to focus on your plastic surgery clinic’s content marketing. How can you use content marketing to gain new clients?

Content marketing for plastic surgeons can grow your audience by increasing your website traffic, expanding your email list (through using lead magnets like checklists), and boosting your social media presence. 

In this informative article, we’ll talk further about how your plastic surgery clinic can use content marketing to educate, inform, and sometimes even entertain your audience. With plenty of best practices ahead, you won’t want to miss it. 

What Is Content Marketing?

When most people think of content marketing, they imagine written content like blog posts and articles. That is indeed one form of content marketing, but it’s far from the only one. From visuals like infographics and videos to webinars, these all count as well.

Content marketing is when you produce and then share content with the intention of drumming up interest in your cosmetic services. Companies in all niches and industries use this form of marketing, so content marketing for plastic surgeons is a must as well. 

The Benefits of Content Marketing

If your plastic surgery firm is on a tight budget right now, you might not want to put a full-fledged effort into content marketing. This area of marketing is worth funneling your dollars into though for a multitude of reasons.

Here are the benefits of content marketing for plastic surgeons.

Build Brand Awareness

How strong is your plastic surgery brand? If you think it could be better, content marketing can help your clinic increase its brand awareness. When more people know about your plastic surgery clinic, your audience grows. The clients you develop could be longer-term.

One of the biggest benefits of brand awareness is how it can lead to word-of-mouth marketing among your clients past and present. When someone has a good experience with a company, they typically want to tell people about it. This is free marketing for you, and it’s effortless to boot.  

Create More Trustworthiness

Getting plastic surgery is not like buying a pair of shoes or a box of cereal. Before deciding on a clinic to do the procedure, most of your clients will probably research extensively. They’ll look at before and after photos, read doctor profiles, and review quotes.

If a client feels like they can’t depend on your services, then you’ll lose their business. Since a client is trusting their health and their looks to you (and, in a way, their self-esteem), you want to do whatever you can to make your plastic surgery firm look as trustworthy as possible.

Content marketing for plastic surgeons is one of the best ways to increase that trust. The style of content you produce is key here, though. You can’t write salesy content, as that doesn’t make a client trust you.

Instead, you want to educate the client, filling in gaps in their knowledge. For example, perhaps you make a video about pre-surgery recommendations, or you write a blog post about post-op swelling and how long it will take for it to go down. The content must be valuable above all else. 

Boost Web and Social Traffic

Another perk of content marketing is that your social media and website will get more eyes on them than perhaps ever before. The blog posts you write and then share on social media will direct users back to your website. If you have a well-timed pop-up with a lead magnet, then you can get website visitors to opt into your email list. Then you’d begin the conversion process.

Your social media accounts will also begin growing. Every company needs a booming social media presence these days, including plastic surgeons. According to marketing resource Rev Local, you want to post at least one to two times per day on most social media platforms.

If you’re wondering what to post, your own content is one such way you can fill your feeds. (We also recommend sharing relevant, valuable content from other sources and crediting them). Actively posting on social media is a good way to increase your followers, as is interacting with them such as replying to comments and messages. 

Increase Referral Traffic

One aspect of content marketing for plastic surgeons to consider is guest blogging. You’d find other experts in the medical community and ask if you can write for their blog and vice-versa. The referral traffic you can earn from guest blogging makes it worth your while.

This traffic comes from the other medical expert’s audience, which is similar enough to your own that you could convert some of their clients. 

Develop a Sense of Authority

We talked before about building trust with your clients. One of the best ways to do that is to increase your plastic surgery clinic’s authority. This requires you to position your clinic as the expert in plastic surgery.

Perhaps you write a whitepaper on a cosmetic surgery topic, or you do a study. In addition, responding to questions on sites like Quora or LinkedIn can help make your plastic surgery clinic look more authoritative. 

When your potential clients realize that you wrote that big paper on cosmetic surgery that’s been floating around, this increases their trust in you. Establishing your clinic as an authority is also a free way to market yourself. Medical firms and companies of all sizes will share your whitepaper or report, crediting you and putting your name out there. 

Cultivate More Qualified Leads 

The last reason to choose content marketing for plastic surgeons is to increase the quality of your leads. A content marketing plan is already going to direct or redirect traffic to your website, as mentioned before, but the leads who click a social media link to visit your blog are more qualified than the leads who look up “plastic surgeons ‘location’” and randomly find you.

Qualified leads are typically more educated about your services and could be readier to buy as well. You still must nurture qualified leads to convert them into clients, but the process of doing so may be more abbreviated. 

Types of Content for Plastic Surgeons

You can see the value of content marketing for plastic surgeons, but which type of content should your clinic start with? Let’s go over the different content types so you can begin to formulate your marketing strategy. 

Articles

Blog content and articles will be part of the backbone that is your content marketing strategy. More than likely, you yourself won’t write this content, but you might hire an in-house writer or contract freelance writers to produce written content for you.

Business analytics platform Databox states that the perfect length for content in the early 2020s should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words (like this post). However, what matters far more than word count is the type of content you’re producing.

Anyone can write a 500-word fluff piece, but if it provides no value to the reader, then it won’t have its intended effect. You also must beware of keyword stuffing, which is cramming the same keyword into an article.  

Not only does keyword stuffing read as robotic and stilted to your audience, but Google likely penalizes the behavior as well.   

How often should you publish blog content and other articles? The answer varies depending on your industry and your audience. We recommend posting at least once weekly. If you want to post more often than that, such as three to even four times per week, then listen to your audience’s feedback. They’ll let you know if they appreciate so much content.

Some companies even publish daily, but again, it depends on your audience. The last thing you want to do is turn your audience off with too-frequent content posting. 

No matter your content schedule, an editorial calendar will help you plan which topics you’ll discuss, what’s being written, when it’s due, and when it’s going to be published. This way, even if there’s a holiday or your writer has to take a week off, you shouldn’t be left scrambling for content. 

Videos

Content marketing for plastic surgeons is not complete without video, which might be the most popular form of content marketing at current. According to video production company Lemonlight, message retention is very high when people view videos, up to 95 percent. 

Another video company, Wyzowl, says that most video marketers, 94 percent, believe that video helps their audience better understand their services and/or products. 

Today, you have more platforms than ever for hosting videos. You can upload short clips on Twitter or Instagram, live stream on Facebook, or record and upload longer video footage on YouTube. 

Although it can be a little intimidating to get in front of the camera, producing video as part of your plastic surgery clinic’s marketing plan is advantageous. You can increase social media traffic and build trust among your clients with video marketing.

Best practices to succeed with videos

Here are some best practices to succeed at recording and distributing videos.

• Know your goals: Like you don’t sit down and write a blog post without a clear goal in mind, you can’t just idle in front of the camera without a goal when making a video. Before you hit the record button, determine what your goals are.
• Write a script: Your video needs a script. This will give you talking points to cover as well as help your team predict how long the video will be.  
• Have good lighting: Lighting is everything when making videos. Natural lighting like sunlight is best, but it might not always be available. If you must use artificial light, choose soft light sources, which have fewer shadows. Never use overhead lighting or the light will cast some strange shadows on your subject.   
• Choose a clean background: You want your audience to pay attention to your message, not the background of your video. You don’t have to use a plain white wall but keep the background simple and clean. 
• Be natural: This is admittedly the hardest part of recording a video, but the most necessary. If you read your script word for word, it’s going to come across as too fake. Be natural, be authentic, and try to have fun!
• Edit sparingly: Almost every video requires some editing, and it’s fine if yours does too. Limit the over-the-top editing and zany transitions. These effects detract from your message.  

eBooks

Do you have a topic you want to delve into that’s longer than 2,000 words? Then you should write an eBook, which is our next type of content marketing for plastic surgeons. An eBook should read like any fiction or nonfiction book with chapters. 

Writing an eBook is like producing other long-form content. You still want to introduce stats and figures to back up any claims you make. You need a consistent tone from the beginning of the book until the end. If you can find some free stock photos to add between chapters, that’s not a bad idea, but it’s not mandatory.  

You can sell your eBook when it’s finished or use it as a lead magnet. For instance, if a website visitor signs up to your plastic surgery email list, they’d receive two free chapters of your eBook. 

Checklists

Your plastic surgery firm can also produce checklists. Using the example from before, you can write a pre-op or post-op checklist so your clients know how to prepare for their cosmetic surgery. These checklists can also become lead magnets to increase opt-ins. 

Guides

Does your plastic surgery firm have the ultimate guide to liposuction or breast augmentation? Then publish it! The average length of a guide is around 3,000 words, so this is longer-form content, but it’s also high-value. 

As you did when writing blog content or an eBook, you need to put a lot of research into your content. Know who your audience is too. For instance, if your plastic surgery firm wrote the ultimate guide to liposuction, then this would be aimed at other surgeons rather than plastic surgery clients. 

Templates

Here’s another form of content marketing for plastic surgeons: templates. Your template might include cosmetic surgery techniques, post-op care, or other tips and tricks from your industry. This too makes a great lead magnet. 

Webinars

You can also share your wealth of cosmetic surgery expertise by hosting a webinar. Your audience would likely be other medical experts rather than your clients. To attract interest in your webinar, email your mailing list. 

Do be aware that more people will probably express interest in your webinar than those who will attend, especially if your webinar isn’t free. Even if your webinar doesn’t attract the audience or income that you were hoping for, you have other opportunities to earn from the webinar.

You might charge for replays of the webinar. You can also produce a transcript and sell that.  

Before and After Photos and Videos 

Of all the content marketing for plastic surgeons, before and after photos or videos might be the most effective. Every potential client wants to see how you could change their face or body and thus their life, and before and after photos exemplify that.

Conclusion 

Content marketing for plastic surgeons can increase your web traffic, boost your sales, grow your qualified leads, and increase client trust. With the many types of content marketing at your disposal, your plastic surgery clinic can create a successful marketing plan.

If you need help along the way, our marketing pros at Mediaboom are ready to assist. Our digital marketing agency specializes in website services, design, and marketing. We work with plastic surgery clinics like yours to achieve their marketing goals.