Plastic Surgery Marketing

Understanding Plastic Surgery Marketing

Just like any other business, plastic surgery practice needs a constant supply of new patients. The best way to secure them is to build a consistent marketing strategy for customer acquisition and retention.

Plastic surgery marketing comprises of several types of activities:

1. Marketing research
2. Creation of marketing strategy
3. Digital marketing
4. Offline marketing activities

Marketing experts of dNOVO Group created this guide to help you build and implement comprehensive plastic surgery marketing strategy. It contains the key insights and expertise we acquired over the years of working with our clients.

In the next section, we discuss the current state of the plastic surgery market in Canada and the benefits of consistent marketing for the private sector.

If you already understand the market and the need for marketing strategy, you can skip the next section and go directly to the discussion of cosmetic patients.

Buckle up as it’s a long read.

Cosmetic Medicine Market in Canada: Why Your Practice Needs Marketing Strategy

Surprisingly, the research of the plastic surgery market in Canada is scarce. The most recent statistics in the field date back to the pre-pandemic era. For the purposes of this section, we took several of these researches and combined them with more recent global statistics.

Overall, statistical data for plastic surgery procedures is pretty scarce. This is especially critical in Canada where there’s an abundance of statistical data in other areas of healthcare collected by the government and readily available in open access.

The demand for plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery has been steadily growing over the past 50 years. In fact, according to The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) 2022 report, there was a 41.3% increase in the number of aesthetic surgeries worldwide in a span of 4 years.

It might seem that having a good plastic surgery practice is all it takes for a clinic to succeed. However, there are several important aspects of the aesthetic medicine business in Canada that you need to take into consideration.

First, your plastic surgery clinic has to compete not only with other private clinics but also with the public ones. Cosmetic medicine in Canada is one of few types of healthcare services that are allowed to be private. However, according to the Plastic Surgery Profile issued by Canadian Medical association, the majority of Canadian plastic surgeons work in the public sector, i.e., in community hospitals (8%) and academic health science centers (42%).

Second, aesthetic medicine is one of few healthcare areas in Canada that is not suffering the shortage of professionals associated with the ongoing crisis in the public health sector. According to The Canadian Plastic Surgery Workforce Analysis, the number of professionals being trained at the time of the research (2016-2017) was sufficient for public demand in the following decade. 

Summing up, the sufficient number of plastic surgeons and the fact that the majority of them are working in the state-sponsored facilities creates a highly competitive environment for the private aesthetic medicine companies in Canada. 

Most private clinics will have to put much effort into acquiring new patients. Meanwhile, the retention rates in this particular industry are low (see next section for more information). 

These market peculiarities call for a comprehensive plastic surgery marketing strategy and consistent marketing efforts for private aesthetic medicine clinics in Canada.

In addition to this, marketing strategy has several other benefits for business:

1. Fostering business growth
2. Increasing the efficiency of budget allocation.
3. Better planning and control of performance due to goals and KPIs.
4. Marking decisions based on data rather than “gut feeling.”
5. Maintaining brand consistency.
6. Improving communication with potential patients.

Healthcare Marketing Guides

This guide is part of our content series dedicated to medical marketing. The purpose of the series is to help Canadian private clinics and practices to boost their lead generation and gain more patients using actionable marketing strategies.

Want to learn about actionable marketing strategies for healthcare providers. Check out our guides dedicated to this topic:

• Medical Marketing Guide
• Dental Marketing Guide
• Chiropractor Marketing Guide
• IVF Fertility Marketing Guide

Now, let’s move on to the basics for your plastic surgery marketing strategy:

Plastic Surgery Patients

Understanding your buyers is the key to your business success. Marketers put a lot of effort into studying their existing patients along with the customers of their competitors. 

This information helps marketers make several important decisions on:

1. Who to target
2. What channels to choose
3. How to promote your products & services
4. How to plan retention and upsell

This section will explain how to study your patients from a marketing perspective, build the ideal patient persona, pick the channels for your communication and your perspectives with retention and upsell.

Who Are Plastic Surgery Patients?

Marketers study their clients and sum up their findings in Buyer Persona. This document contains the “portrait of your ideal patient” with several types of data:

• Demographic data (age, gender, ethnicity, income, location, family, etc.)
• Pain points & needs (e.g., stop ageing, meet beauty standards, etc.)
• Buying behaviour (e.g., a person looks for clinics online).

One business can have several Buyer Personas based on the needs and behaviour of each category of customers. For example, if you have a marketing agency, the gender of your buyers isn’t important. However, for plastic surgery it will play a key role as you will be selling very different services.

For plastic surgery marketing, you will create an ideal patient persona identifying the same criteria (demographics, pain points, and buying behaviour).

Demographic data of an ideal patient persona

You can gain demographic data from several sources. First, you need to analyse the data of your own patients. Second, you can check with the statistics available online. Third, you can look at your most successful competitors and see who they target with their content. Check out an example of demographic data for plastic surgery patients (age and gender):

As you can see the majority (70%) of your patients are aged 40-69. These are Gen X, early Millennials and late Baby Boomers. In the span of the next 5 years, you’ll have a steady increase of millennials as your patients as the generation is entering the age when people become increasingly interested in aesthetic medicine. And you need to plan for it.

Pain points & needs of an ideal patient persona

Understanding client pain points and needs can help you build communication with them more effectively. For example, you can create a targeted advertisement aimed at millennial women offering blepharoplasty and thigh lift.

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When doing this part of plastic surgery marketing research, we also suggest looking at specific procedures that are trending. You will get this data from a thorough analysis of your own patients along with the study of available research. There are several sources worth checking out:

First, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons issues statistics reports on a semi-regular basis. They contain trends, procedures, as well as age and gender breakdowns. The most recent publicly available report is 2022 Plastic Surgery Statistics.

Second, you can check out for plastic surgery trends published by Canadian plastic surgery clinics and organisations. For example, Toronto Cosmetic Surgery Institute shared their vision on recent plastic surgery trends in Canada.

Third, some statistics might appear on Statista in open access, like the one in the screenshot below:

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Fourth, checking the cosmetic treatments popular among celebrities can help you understand what patients will be looking for, since a substantial amount of people will try copying their idols.

Fifth, SEO keyword research can help you identify the current Google search trends in your country. Below is an example of search trends for 3 different cosmetic procedures in Canada:

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Finally, we suggest conducting a thorough analysis of patient opinion to understand what they like and dislike about the aesthetic medicine procedures they received. Obviously, a private clinic won’t have resources to conduct a full-fledged nationwide or even regional survey.

However, it’s not necessary. Go to Google Business Profiles of your competitors and read online reviews and testimonials of their plastic surgery patients. Both good and bad reviews can help you understand the concerns of the people in regard to procedures. Check out the example of such review: 

Another valuable source of patient concerns and fears (often those that do not reach the doctors) is Reddit and similar forums. Here’s an example of an answer to a question on Reddit (“What’s your thoughts on plastic surgery?”):

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If you read the same thread, you can see that many people find the results of plastic surgery “hideous.” It’s certainly a big concern of many potential patients. Good plastic surgery is hardly “seen” because it looks natural. That’s why people only notice bad results and in many cases that’s all they know about your work.

Since it’s a popular and valuable concern of your potential patients, part of your communication will be aimed at working with that concern.

Buying behaviour

Buying behaviour consists of several important aspects. First, you need to understand where your ideal patient persona is looking for your services. 

Second, you need to understand how their typical buyer journey looks like. One of the basic ways to understand it is to ask your existing patients in the questionnaire you give them to fill out.

Third, you need to understand what blockers they have when making the decision to choose your clinic. It can be the price. It can be fear that something goes wrong (see Reddit example above). They might be ashamed as plastic surgery treatments are still stigmatised by society.

Finally, you need to think about what pushes them toward the buying decision. It can be the beauty standards, body dysphoria or a simple desire to look better.

What Channels Are Best for Your Plastic Surgery Marketing

Once you’ve created your ideal patient persona, you can outline the channels you will work with. We suggest the following:

1. Digital channels:

• Website
• SEO
• Content
• Directories
• Reviews
• Social media marketing
• Email marketing
• PPC

2. Offline channels:

• Banner ads
• Printed materials
• Street banners

Upsell and Retention as Part of Your Plastic Surgery Marketing

Last but not least in the plastic surgery marketing research of your patient is retention and upsell. Retention is much valued in online marketing for one simple reason. The cost of customer acquisition will also be higher than the cost of customer retention.

Same is true for plastic surgery. The cost of patient acquisition is high. You need to get them through all the stages of their buyer journey and your sales funnel. You need to attract potential patient, educate them about the plastic surgery procedure, build initial rapport and trust, and convert them into a patient.

When it comes to patient retention, you have already attracted their attention and built initial rapport and trustworthy relationships. Unless you really messed up serving them, chances are high they will return to you for another round of plastic surgery & non surgical procedures.

Upsell is selling the patient more aesthetic procedures or more expensive cosmetic treatments. It can be either to a new client instead of the procedures they initially requested. It can also be your regular patient who decided to try something new and more expensive upon the persuasion of your clinic.

You will divide the retention and upsell activities with the doctors in your clinics. As a marketer you can study the trends in upsell and provide your doctors with insights. For example, you see that many patients offer two procedures together. You can ask your doctors to try offering them to patients.

Other methods of retention and upsell include:

• Appointment reminders
• Email marketing
• Special offers & discounts
• Loyalty programs

After researching the market, building the ideal patient persona, and choosing the channels to promote your aesthetic medicine practice, you can proceed with planning your digital marketing strategy.

Digital Marketing Strategies for Plastic Surgery: How to Build Online Presence

Online presence is the basis of growth for most businesses. Digital marketing strategies give you an opportunity to reach out to people who are looking for your particular services. Meanwhile you do not waste time and resources on those who don’t.

Digital plastic surgery marketing strategies require a long-term and diligent work across many channels:

1. Website
2. SEO
3. Content
4. Reviews
5. Social media marketing
6. Email marketing
7. PPC

Multichannel approach in plastic surgery marketing will give you the best results in lead generation and patient conversions. By smartly combining these channels you can boost your marketing efforts and increase ROI.

Now, let’s talk about each plastic surgery marketing channel separately:

Start with the Website to Attract and Convert Plastic Surgery Patients

Plastic surgery website is the cornerstone of your plastic surgery marketing strategies. Your practice website is available any time of the day – wherever your potential patient decides to embark their buyer journey. It can provide all the necessary information about your plastic surgery practice and your cosmetic procedures.

The essential elements of a converting plastic surgery website are:

1. Main page
2. Service pages for each cosmetic treatment
3. Pages for doctors and other specialists
4. Gallery of plastic surgery results (before and after)
5. Blog
6. Contact page

Check out the best practices of medical website design.

Plastic Surgeons Website Examples

This section features several examples of good plastic surgeon websites with several plastic surgery marketing ideas that we find exceptionally useful.

Check out the cosmetic practice website screenshot below:

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It has compelling visuals, addresses one of the needs of plastic surgery patients with its content, i.e., staying beautiful and not ageing. It has the contact data readily available on top and a French version since it’s a clinic located in Quebec.

This website has a number of service pages, each dedicated to a different procedure. They have a separate category of pages for men. We think it’s a smart move, since plastic surgery for men is often frowned upon by society. 

Men can feel very vulnerable searching for the necessary information among the procedures for women. Also, they usually know less about cosmetic treatments and the anatomy of a woman’s body. They can start browsing all the available procedures and end up on the labiaplasty or mastectomy page.

We’d like to show another example of great plastic surgery marketing practice, the book appointment/consultation page:

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There are several reasons why we like it a lot. First, it is a smart surgery marketing practice for a business, in which the millennials will soon comprise the majority of clients. The millennial hate of phone calls is a known fact. Leaving them the opportunity to avoid it demonstrates a deep understanding of this category of plastic surgery patients.

Second, this page is a great way to collect information about the patient’s needs. It will give the necessary data to the doctor who can now be prepared for the patient’s visit. If you go to this page and scroll down, you will also have a couple of fields with inquiries like the expected time of surgery and the current condition. Finally the form offers to write down questions or comments that the patient finds relevant. 

Third, it will also give an opportunity for retention and upsell. The client might not get all the procedures at once, because it’s too intensive health-wise or it’s too pricey. Alternatively, the patient might decide against doing the cosmetic treatments at this time for a plethora of reasons.

However, you have their contact data. Now, you can send a targeted email or SMS after a certain period of time. Promoting the procedures they were interested in but didn’t get. 

Our last example is the service page for tummy tuck:

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This page is loaded with information that is important for patients. We especially love that the website developers created large widgets for pricing, procedure time and recovery time. You can also see the before and after photo, you have the link to the gallery for more photos like this. Potential patients are provided with an easy navigation tool, the address of the clinic, the rating and the client reviews (if you scroll down a bit).

Now, there’s a huge unresolved marketing debate over placing prices on your website. There are pros and cons of each option. The best suggestion we got so far is an A/B testing.

Create Plastic Surgery SEO Strategy

Search Engine Optimization Strategy is critical if you want your potential patients to actually find your website. Continuous and regular SEO efforts will eventually get you to the top of the ranking pages for various keywords. 

However, you need to understand that it’s a “long game.” It will take at least several months to see the first tangible results of your SEO strategy. So patients and methodical work are the key.

Check out our Comprehensive Medical SEO Guide.

Website Optimization

Website optimization helps you make your page more user-friendly. Google and other search engines aim to provide the best web pages to the website visitors. Apart from relative and high-quality content, Google crawlers also check for things like: 

• No broken links
• Pages can be easily accessed from other pages
• Good site architecture with easy navigation
• High page download speed
• Secured from hackers
• Easy to use on mobile devices
• No content duplication

All these things create a seamless and stressless experience for Google users. As a website owner, you also want that for your website visitors. That’s why website optimization is necessary both – for your plastic surgery SEO strategy and for your patient conversion.

You’ll need to conduct a regular SEO Audit to check if your website meets the necessary criteria. Luckily, there are a number of SEO tools that can help you with it.

Keyword Research

Keywords are the basis of your plastic surgery SEO strategy and content marketing strategy. These are words, phrases or sentences that your cosmetic surgery patients use to find cosmetic treatments online.

There are 3 main characteristics of a keyword:

• Keyword volume 

It is the number of searches per month in a certain country. Let’s take a look at the following example. Below is the screenshot of a popular SEO tool Semrush. It shows the key information about the keyword botox. In the left side of the image, you can see that the volume of this keyword is 18,100 searches per month in Canada alone (and almost 600K worldwide).

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• Keyword difficulty

Measured in percentage, keyword difficulty shows how hard it is to get to the top position of the Search Engine Ranking Page for this keyword. For example, in the screenshot below, you can see that the rhinoplasty has 78% difficulty. Below the percentage Semrush explains what needs to be done to get to the top of SERP with this keyword:

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• Keyword intent

Intent explains what kind of content people are looking for when they type in the keyword in the search engine. Check out the third column in the screenshot below (above the trend). The intent of the “breast reconstruction” keyword is informational. It means that some people are looking for some data about this plastic surgery procedure. 

These people are your potential patients doing their buyer journey. They are also marketers like us who are researching  the competing content. They are journalists aiming to write about plastic surgery. They are knowledge-seekers trying to learn as much as possible about this world. They are that one person who is planning to win an argument about the topic. 

In other words, most of these people will never be your patients. Regardless, you need to create a long-read addressing all the possible questions about this cosmetic treatment to get to the top and to win your readers.

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In the next screenshot, you will see an example of a keyword phrase with a different keyword intent. When people are looking for “nose job before and after” they are ready to offer plastic surgery procedure and are now researching the market. Hence their intent is commercial. 

By the way, this is an example of a very good keyword, since it’s volume is pretty high, and the difficulty is very low for plastic surgery SEO. On top of it all, you have an actual commercial keyword. Just wow! We’d say – take it and create a landing page with a clear CTA for potential patients.

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All the examples above were short-tail keywords containing one word or a phrase. They usually have higher volume and difficulty compared to long-tail keywords which we discuss further on in this guide. 

When you are only beginning your SEO strategy, it will be very hard to get to the top of the SERP with keywords like these. If you scroll back and check the screenshots of Semrush, you will see that most of the keywords have high difficulty. That is except for the “nose job before and after,” it’s totally cool.

That’s why it’s important to target long-tail keywords. These keywords usually have low difficulty and low volume. Check out an example of a long-tail keyword:

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Why target these keywords if there’s so little “juice” in them?

First, they contains short-tail keywords as in the example above. There’s a short-tail “plastic surgery” in it. Finding several long-tail keywords containing the same short-tail and building content for them can help you signal Google that your website is about this particular keyword, i.e., “plastic surgery” in this case.

You can also support your main page dedicated to a particular short-tail keyword by placing links to it in the pages with the related long-tails.

Second, these keywords can answer the concerns of your potential patients. Like the example above. Many potential patients who haven’t undergone cosmetic treatments before, will have natural fear about the surgery. It’s more preferable for you that they will read something reassuring rather than a scary urban legend or a real-life horror stories about South Korea’s ghost plastic surgery practices:

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Anyway, it’s even more preferable if your potential patients will find the information answering their main concerns on your website. It can build rapport with them before you have real-life contact with them.

Finally, some long-tails happen to be gems that are too good to pass. Check out yet another great keyword for your plastic surgery marketing campaigns and SEO:

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Despite a low volume, it has low difficulty and transactional intent. This type of intent means that people searching for this keyword expect to find a service page where they can order a botox procedure.

Link Building

Google was created by scientists. Thus certain things in Google work very similar to how the scientific process is organised. Links are one good example of this phenomenon. In the scientific community, the number of citations in other papers help identify the authority and value of a particular scientific paper. Google perceives links in a similar manner – as scientific citations.

Let’s say you wrote a paper on breast reconstruction after mastectomy. If you are cited in similar scientific papers like this one, it means that your paper has authority and value for science. 

Now, let’s be silly for a moment and imagine you’ve got citations in a paper dedicated to geology (which is unlikely because science is a serious endeavour). Such citations have no value since it’s completely unrelated to your field of study. 

Finally, your peers will be checking the citations that your paper has. Unless the geological research is relevant to your paper on mastectomy (like the study of uranium-rich rocks), citing it will raise a brow.

Google crawlers will go through your website carefully to check the links. They will analyse your external links, in particular, if they point to websites relevant to your topic. 

They will also check your internal links, in particular, which pages get the most links from other parts of your website. Thereby, Google will understand which pages are the most valuable on your website.

Crawlers will also check if any page is isolated from your website and has no interlinking. Called an orphan page, it negatively impacts your plastic surgery SEO. Google finds such practices suspicious and can punish you by lowering your ranking.

Finally, the crawlers will check the sources of your backlinks, the websites with the links that point to your website. The reputable websites dedicated to plastic surgery or healthcare, Wikipedia, websites of a medical educational organisation, NGOs, organisations like Canadian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, reputable magazines like Forbes are all great sources of backlinks. They can give a lot of authority to your domain. 

Websites and blogs dedicated to plastic surgery, social media, and online newspapers are also good for your cosmetic surgery SEO. A backlink from a geology website won’t do much good but won’t harm either.

Finally, links from the websites from online casinos and other shady businesses will, on the other hand, get you in trouble. Google doesn’t like such backlinks and will punish your website by lowering your rankings.

You need to constantly monitor your website to make sure that you don’t have these types of malicious links. Luckily tools like Semrush can help you.

Content Strategy & On-Page Optimization

We’ll be discussing content strategy in detail in the next section of this guide. For now, let’s focus on an important aspect of plastic surgery SEO, on-page optimization.

As mentioned above, Google took many principles for website analysis from science. It began its ranking from basic determining the number of keywords in the page. The more keywords a certain page had, the more it was relevant. This principle was immediately abused by some SEO practitioners which began an epic arms race between Google and web masters.

Today, keywords still play an important role, but you also need to put them in the right places. This process is called on-page optimization.

Here’s the list of places that must contain your main keyword:

1. First-level header (H1)
2. First paragraph
3. Second-level header (H2)
4. Meta title
5. Meta description
6. Alt text of your images
7. URL of the page

Let’s look at the example of the first page that appears in Google for the keyword “botox Toronto”: https://drpirani.com/botox-toronto/. This page is pretty well optimised. Below is the screenshot of three tabs of SEO Meta in 1 Click, the app that enables you to quickly check the on-page SEO:

From this screenshot you can see that the URL contains the keyword. The keyword is in the Meta title, Meta description and the Alt Text of one image. Additionally, you can find a changed keyword in the H1. Moreover, many H2s contain the keyword botox.

Tools like WordPress will usually have the necessary functionality and plugins to help you with on-page SEO optimization, like headers, alt text, URLs, and links.

For example in the screenshot below, you can see one of our images in the WordPress media gallery. In the left menu, you can see the alt text containing keyword medical marketing:

WordPress also has several SEO plugins that enable you to enter your main keyword, meta title, meta description and analyse how well your page is analysed for a certain keyword.

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Local SEO

Unless your plastic surgery practice has a unique treatment no other clinic in the world has, optimising your website for a certain location is the best way to go.

Local SEO has two main benefits:

1. You do not have to compete globally with plastic surgery clinics that have more resources to do it.
2. You attract prospective patients in your area and most people aren’t eager to go far away from home for cosmetic treatments.
3. Google boosts business websites optimised for local SEO because most users will be looking for a local business.

Check out the SERP for “breast augmentation Vancouver”:

As you can see, the top of the SERP contains a map and a list of plastic surgery practices located in Vancouver. These cosmetic surgery clinics created Google Business Profiles to boost their local SEO.

Google Business Profile is free of charge. It enables your website pages to rank higher in the SERP. It features your business on the map and in Google SERP. Your potential customers will see your address, telephone number, opening hours, link to the website and can get directions in just a few clicks.

In addition to Google Business Profile, we suggest using keywords that contain your location, for example, “tummy tuck Montreal.”

Content Marketing Plan for Plastic Surgeons

Similar to SEO, content plan for plastic surgery marketing strategies is a long-term process that requires continuous work and regular content updates.

Your plastic surgery content marketing strategy must meet the following criteria:

1. Support SEO strategy
2. Address the needs and concerns of your target audience
3. Be informative and evidence-based
4. Build a buyer journey that leads to conversion.
5. Establish initial rapport with prospective patients

Let’s take a closer look at some of them.

Aesthetic Medicine Content Should Support SEO

SEO strategy will provide you with the list of keywords that you need to rank in Google. Each keyword will require at least one separate piece of content. In some cases, you will have to build a service page for a certain keyword (e.g., jawline reshaping) and supporting blog posts.

For example this website has 2 blogs about “tummy tuck” and one service page:

See how both blogs target long-tail keywords: “tummy tuck vs liposuction” (volume 110, keyword difficulty 15) and “tummy tuck after c section” volume 70, keyword difficulty 17). What this blog failed from the SEO standpoint is the link to the service page dedicated to this procedure.

How to Address the Concerns of Your Target Audience with Content

When you were creating an ideal patient persona, you made a list of pain points and needs of your current and former patients. During the SEO keyword research you matched these concerns with actual keywords. Now it’s time to build content addressing them.

Plastic surgeries don’t always go as planned. Your patients know this. In fact, they need to know this and be informed before they make a life-changing decision such as a cosmetic surgery.

Here’s an example of an article that covers the side effects of facial plastic surgery:

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This piece however, doesn’t provide any relief to the patient. It ends with the paragraph about the best plastic surgeon in India.

In the screenshot below, you can see how this issue can be addressed.

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It’s a paragraph from a post that lists complications of general and cosmetic surgeries. It contains several good suggestions to plastic surgery patients to follow before and after the procedure.

We like this type of content because it’s frank and straightforward. It also can be helpful in case people start attack you for not providing full information about cosmetic procedures.

Building a Buyer Journey to Convert Patients

Buyer journey or patient journey is a series of actions that a certain person makes from the first idea of getting a plastic surgery to becoming a patient. It can take years and several media to complete. If you do SEO and content strategy right, you can become the part of this journey.

Now your main task is to make the patient journey as easy as possible on the channels that you control (website, email, social media marketing, etc.)

Remember the example of 2 tummy tuck blog posts we discussed above? The blogs didn’t include a link to the service page. That’s not only an example of a failed SEO opportunity, but also of a failed buyer journey or patient journey.

Sure, the patients can find the Abdominoplasty service page in the menu above, but it will require several additional clicks. Plus they’ll have to visually look for the procedure in the list of other plastic surgery services.

This blog posts ends with the CTA, which is good:

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However, the CTA itself is confusing. Instead of offering to book an appointment, it requests to send a message to the plastic surgery clinic.

Patient journey is hard because it’s about making informed decisions about your body. When you build your content, you need to make this journey as effortless as possible.

Establish Rapport by Featuring Plastic Surgeons

Showcasing your plastic surgeons is essential for building rapport with patients. People subconsciously judge appearances of others and it is also true for how medical professionals look. Although we haven’t found a study related to plastic surgeons, we can safely assume that similar to other medical professionals they are expected to wear formal attire and smile, but not too much.

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Content Tips for Plastic Surgery Marketing Strategies

In this section we provide several tips to enhance your cosmetic surgeons content marketing.

• Video content

Expand your communication with potential patients using compelling medical videos. They can help you pack more information within a minute. They can help you build rapport with your prospective patients. Many people will watch videos while doing something else, for example doing home chores, playing mobile games, etc.

Video content is a great example of content that can be repurposed across multiple channels. You can place the same video on your YouTube, on your social media, and on several pages of your website. You can’t do it with the text, since you’ll have to create separate texts for each of those channels. Videos can also be shown in the waiting room of your plastic surgery clinic.

• Patient Reviews

Patient reviews can help your plastic surgery build your online reputation and trust with potential clients. Many people are very scared of any type of surgery, especially the one that is not fixing any health problems. Furthermore, there are many stories about plastic surgery gone wrong. Naturally, people are afraid and aren’t fast to trust. That’s where online reviews from satisfied patients can come in handy.

There are several places appropriate for the reviews and testimonials. First, it’s your website. Check out the example of a website containing positive reviews below:

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Second, the reviews will be demonstrated in your Google Business Profile:

From the screenshot above, you can see that this particular plastic surgeon also has a profile on RateMDs. Having profile on various review sites is a good practice both for patient testimonials and for backlinks from a reputable website. Don’t be afraid that a patient will be sharing a negative review. Most people understand that it’s inevitable. Moreover, only positive reviews look really suspicious.

• Before and after

As a medical professional, you know that the human brain detects certain stimuli better than others. Faces, bodies and body parts are among stimuli that we pick out from our environment automatically. Similarly, we pay more attention to things that induce strong emotions in us (especially the negative ones). 

Cosmetic surgery patients are exceptionally susceptible to the body “imperfections” and have strong emotions about them.

That’s what makes the before and after photos so compelling to the patients and one of the best plastic surgery marketing materials. Check out an example of a carousel with thigh lift before and after visuals:

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One last thing! Don’t make it creepy. In the screenshot below, you can see a not so good example of covering the eyes. People who are quickly scrolling through the page can perceive the second model and third models as lacking eyes. Especially given the context of scrolling through a medical website.

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• Showcase certificates

Certificates prove your plastic surgeons have put much time and effort into becoming qualified professionals. Here are some examples of featuring certificates on the website.

We like this example because it features the icons of the organisations that issued the certificates. The tiny drawback of this approach is that the icon colours might be uncomplimentary to the colours of your website. This particular plastic surgery clinic has a very timid palette with several bright contrasts. So the icons look organic, but it’s not always the case.

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In the example below, you can see the photocopies of the certificates that the plastic surgeon has acquired. We like this approach because they can serve as a proof of the doctor’s certification. Also each icon is clickable. People can enlarge and review each certificate separately.

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What we don’t like is the quality of the icons. They aren’t sharp enough and poorly cropped. Overall they present a bit messy, at least messier than the icons.

Expanding Your Plastic Surgery Marketing Channels

Once you’ve established a strong online presence with a plastic surgery practice website and a solid SEO and content marketing strategies, you can expand to other channels.

To boost your plastic surgery marketing strategies we suggest:

• Facilitating patient engagement with Social Media Marketing
• Retain patients and upsell cosmetic surgery with Email Marketing
• Driving more traffic and increase brand visibility with Pay Per Click Advertising.

Social Media Marketing for Plastic Surgery

Social media platforms are a critical tool in your plastic surgery marketing strategies. It’s a great way to engage with potential cosmetic patients who aren’t currently looking for aesthetic treatment services.

Choosing Social Media Platforms for Plastic Surgery Marketing

There are many social media channels, but we suggest focusing on Instagram and Facebook. Here’s why:

1. Social media usage statistics

The majority of Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers use Facebook. Instagram use is slightly worse: almost three quarters of Millennials, approximately half of Gen X, and one third of Baby Boomers use this social media platform:

2. User intent

These are social media platforms used for personal purposes and entertainment rather than professional networking like LinkedIn or short-format political wars like X (former Twitter).

Choosing Content to Boost Social Media Engagement

Social media presence alone isn’t enough. You need to create engaging content to engage patients. Some of the most successful plastic surgeons social media on Instagram have at least several of the following posts types:

• before and after photos

As we mentioned before, before-after content is exceptionally engaging. Plastic surgery social media have all sorts of photos, even those that feature private procedures like breast augmentation or BBL.

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• patient testimonials

In the screenshot below, you can see an example of patient testimonials shared on her Instagram page and reshared by the clinic. She shows the photo of the plastic surgeon who did her procedure.

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• humor that clients can relate to:

Engagement with funny content on social media is high as a rule of thumb. In fact, almost one third people expect the social media content to be funny.

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• Discussion of celebrities plastic surgery transfomrations

Celebrities play the key role in popularization of plastic surgery. Their bodies are relentlessly scrutinized in search of plastic surgery traces. Since not all of them are eager to share the details of their life, much is left for debate and guessing. Your cosmetic surgeons can give their professional opinion on the matter that many people are eager to learn.

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• Addressing clients’ fears and concerns:

Content addressing the patients’ fears around the plastic surgery will be appreciated by your social media audience and shared. In the screenshot below, you can see a great example of how to approach this topic:

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• video content from actual procedures and even surgeries.

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All these types of social media content provide high rates of patient engagement. In fact, our own team spent several hours just going through all the Meta Reels, as well as Facebook and Instagram posts. It was very hard to stop scrolling through seemingly endless photos of humans.

So if you want to succeed in your social media marketing, we highly recommend spend some time on reviewing the social media we showcased above. You can pick several types of content and work on it.

Conducting social media marketing campaigns can be time consuming. Here are some tips how you can cut corners:

1. Repurpose content

Some of the content you created for your website blog will perform good on your social media. Rewrite it using simpler language, more informal style and avoid overly scientific information.

2. Use AI

Ask AI to create a social media content plan for you. Use it to create short stories or rewrite your website articles. Just be careful and make sure to check it before posting. Never use it to create photos. Below are three examples of “before and after” photos generated by an AI. It did a pretty bad job with creating the disfigurements of human bodies that come with age:

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3. Ask your patients to tag you

While many people want to hide the fact they had plastic surgery, many are totally ok with sharing it with others on their social media. You can ask your patients to tag your clinic if they’re sharing their new looks with the world. You can offer them a discount on a common procedure performed next time.

4. Engage your cosmetic surgeons and personnel

Ask them some controversial question and make a short video clip to share on social media. For example: “What are the pros and cons of breast augmentation?”

5. Hire professionals

Maintaining constant social media engagement can be tricky, especially if you don’t have much time and experience. Just like your clients entrust their beauty care to you, you can trust social media marketing professionals to build broader public community of plastic surgery patients.

Email Marketing for Plastic Surgeons

Similar to Social media, email marketing is a great channel to promote cosmetic plastic surgery to potential, existing, and former patients.

The suggested type of content for plastic surgery marketing email campaign:

1. Special offers and discounts
2. New procedures available
3. Appointment reminders
4. Information about the upcoming procedure do’s and dont’s
5. Notifications about new articles posted on your website

Don’t forget to add the links to your social media channels!

The Benefits of Email Marketing

The benefits of email marketing include:

• customisation of outreach based on demographic or medical data
• personalization of your communication
• keeping the interest to your services
• keeping in touch with former patients
• driving traffic to your website and social media

How to Collect Plastic Surgery Leads

One of the key concerns when doing email marketing is how to get contacts of potential clients. Here are some of the sources:

1. Your office

People will come to your office and request the info or will come to the consultation. Ask them to fill our the form and provide their contact data.

2. Your website

Create contact or book appointment form to collect patient’s contact data. Check out this form for collecting leads for your plastic surgery marketing campaign:

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The page is titled “Are You A Candidate For A Cosmetic Procedure?” And we absolutely love it for several reasons:

• It collects the medical, demographical and contact data of your leads.
• It helps you rule out the leads with severe health conditions.
• It offers to ask the questions, i.e., patient concerns.
• It promises to send personalized reply.
• It captures those leads who are too shy or aren’t ready for a consultation.
• It gives you an opportunity to craft customized email campaigns based on demographical or medical data.
• You can save the time of your cosmetic surgeons during consultation.

3. Phone calls

Many people will still call to your practice with common questions. Don’t be afraid to ask their information.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Strategies for Cosmetic Surgery Practice

When beginning marketing for your cosmetic surgery practice, it’s hard to generate a lot of traffic to your website immediately. That’s why many businesses opt to do pay per click advertisements.

PPC ads are displayed:

• on top of Google search page

Check out this example of breast augmentation sponsored ads in Google SERP:

• in applications, e.g., video games
• on websites that live off the banner ads
• on social media
• on YouTube

Benefits of PPC ads:

1. Up to 200% ROI
2. You control who gets to see your ads (age groups, gender, location)
3. You can get leads fast
4. You will get more traffic to your website
5. You got better rankings in search engine

The Best Way to Plan and Implement your Plastic Surgery Strategy

If you’ve made it this far, you’re some powerful reader or a smart skipper. Anyway, by this time, you must be pretty convinced that doing plastic surgery marketing is pretty hard. You must be wondering how to cut some corners, have your cake, eat it and not spending your precious time on baking it.

The best way to go about your plastic surgery marketing is to hire a medical marketing agency that can create and implement the strategy, set and control clear goals and KPIs, and most importantly bring you new leads.

If you are ready to boost the lead generation for your plastic surgery practice to the next level, book a free one hour consultation with us.