The New York Times “Skin Deep” recently reported a discovery that has piqued the interest of quite a few consumers who were on the fence about pursuing a cosmetic procedure. Recently, in order to compete during a deep economic downswing, many dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and cosmetic surgery offices are increasing, or trying to maintain their current patient numbers, by offering broad discount rates on all kinds of procedures.
These broad discounts are a direct result of the amount of individuals looking for a cosmetic procedure declining sharply along with the fall in the economy. Those who are still seeking a cosmetic procedure are using due diligence and basing their decision more on quality and recognition than overall cost. This has meant that plastic surgeons have had to come up with new ways of selling themselves and their individual services. This has led to a tremendous movement to dig deep into the marketing of the surgeons’ persona as much as the actual surgical background and experience. Online branding of surgeons has started to become the staple of plastic surgery marketing during this economic downturn. Surgeons who once relied heavily on magazine ads, local newspaper, and word of mouth are now researching the web as an actual tool to find and validate new potential patients. While many have websites, or more to the point, html pages online, most never fully utilized or even realized the potential of the web. Now with over 70% of all medical patients searching online first for medical professionals, from family doctors to plastic surgeons, it is now more important for surgeons to maximize their online presence.
The first place that many plastic surgeons are starting to turn to online is to pay per click (PPC) advertising on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Sometimes they even turn to PPC management companies who, at a cost plus a percentage of the budget, will help them create a budget and even setup the campaigns. The potential conflict here becomes obvious very quickly. On average, the cost per each and every click to a surgeon’s site from the average Google adwords campaign for a plastic surgeon is between $4.00 – $20.00. In an average size metro area that is a moderate monthly spend of around $16,000 – $80,000 PER MONTH. The cost can be considerably higher with more keywords pursued in any one area. For example “Los Angeles Plastic Surgery” is a single keyword with over 4,400 searches per month. There are literally hundreds of other keywords for the Los Angeles keyword base. The price for that one particular keyword is currently just over $21. While this may be cost effective for well known surgeons who are already converting through alternative branding, it can quickly bankrupt new or emerging cosmetic talent.
This leads to a solution that surgeons are starting to more readily grasp, organic search engine optimization. “By seeking out those who are seeking you, you simply change what has become a depression to some, into a golden opportunity for you” Says Todd Williams of plastic Surgery Website Design, a marketing and design company that works exclusively for plastic and cosmetic surgeons. “The first thing that we do with any new client is to analyze their current web presence. What is their bounce rate, what is their conversion rate, what kinds of search engine traffic are they currently getting, etc… Core questions that tell us where to begin,” he says. “Most of the time we can increase conversions by simply changing their design to something more aesthetically pleasing to the consumer” pointing out the fact that many of the older plastic surgery websites online today are old flash driven templates that tend to carry higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates. “It’s at that point we can start building out their organic search engine saturation and they really start to see just how many people are still actively searching for a cosmetic procedure”.
Some plastic surgeons are really taking the initiative discussed here and going to the next level by integrating social media such as twitter, facebook, myspace, and their own plastic surgery blogs where they communicate with potential patients in an individual capacity.
One thing is certain, micro targeting online is no longer “something extra”. It is now a requirement and a necessity for any surgeon looking to not only make it through this recession, but also continue to grow and thrive.