For those involved in plastic surgery, whether you are a surgeon or a clinic, plastic surgery content matters. After all, how else are you going to reach potential patients? Just like any other field, a plastic surgeon’s success is highly dependent on their ability to reach potential clients.
In the current digital age, most people rely on search engines like Google to find information, products, and services. This reliance is where a robust content strategy comes into play. Creating high-quality content for those seeking information on plastic surgery allows surgeons to educate their patients, build a reputation as experts in the field, and ultimately drive conversions.
Table Of Contents:
- Understanding the Landscape of Plastic Surgery Content
- Key Content Types to Optimize
- Crafting a Winning Plastic Surgery Content Strategy
- Conclusion
Understanding the Landscape of Plastic Surgery Content
Before delving into the intricacies of crafting plastic surgery content, let’s first examine the environment in which it exists. A combination of factors is currently influencing this content: social media trends, changes in Google’s algorithms, evolving ethical concerns, and patient expectations. It’s critical to be aware of all these things if you hope to be successful.
The Impact of Social Media
Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have profoundly changed how patients find information and research their options. Many people turn to social media marketing for “before-and-after” photos, patient testimonials, and real-time updates on the latest advancements in plastic surgery.
As far back as 2017 , researchers identified that among the most popular social media platforms, Facebook engagement with patients for cosmetic surgery procedures sat at 50%, followed by Instagram at 30%. Surgeons need to utilize these platforms to connect with potential patients and build trust. You can’t just ignore them because your patients are definitely on them.
Surgeons also need to be aware of ethical considerations as there’s a thin line to navigate between promoting your services and exploiting patient privacy. A lot of research has been conducted on navigating ethical boundaries regarding the sharing of patient information, and in 2017 the ethical sharing of surgical videos even generated its own proposed guidelines.
Staying Ahead of the Curve With SEO
With changes in Google’s algorithm, content related to plastic surgery must incorporate relevant keywords and abide by strict guidelines. Some examples of content that need to follow these rules are blogs, website landing pages, videos, social media content, image tags, meta-data, and press releases. This shift emphasizes Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) to filter out misleading or unreliable information, so any information presented to patients has to reflect the highest levels of credibility.
Research published as far back as 2018 illustrated that social media savvy plastic surgeons with lower academic standing were more highly ranked on Google than those with academic backgrounds that lacked a strong social media presence. This disparity emphasizes the crucial role that both SEO and E-E-A-T now play in the creation of all plastic surgery content. Both elements are no longer simply a preference, they are both critical for success.
Shifting Patient Preferences
These days, prospective patients are far more sophisticated when researching and engaging with healthcare providers. They look for not just general facts on the desired procedures but personalized insights. Some key examples of things that build trust with them are information on a surgeon’s qualifications and affiliations, published medical research and studies, along with data on patient satisfaction levels and outcomes.
Patients want to understand the experience, cost, risks, and benefits associated with each procedure. The key to meeting this new level of scrutiny is to be as thorough and transparent as possible.
Key Plastic Surgery Content Types to Optimize
There are several formats surgeons can utilize when creating plastic surgery content, with each format serving a different purpose:
Website Content
This should contain comprehensive information regarding your services, credentials, experience, philosophy, and contact details. Aim for in-depth explanations about each procedure that go beyond just basic definitions. Also, consider the patient’s desire for personal and professional details about their potential surgeon as well as expectations on patient etiquette. You would be surprised to find just how deep that rabbit hole goes.
Blogs
Blogs provide the ideal opportunity to dive into complex topics, address trending industry updates, and answer questions people most commonly search for. Think breast implant safety or the pros and cons of minimally invasive procedures. It’s all valuable content and it’s highly sought out by prospective patients.
Check out our article for ideas: 10 Plastic Surgery Blog Post Ideas to Boost Engagement !
Case Studies
Detailed reviews with a patient’s consent can demonstrate successful procedures. The anonymity of the patient should be preserved. All consent procedures and publication restrictions must be strictly adhered to.
Video Marketing
Many prefer video content so YouTube plays a prominent role in marketing and informational content regarding plastic surgery. This format allows surgeons to visually showcase their skills and connect with patients more directly. Video platforms have generated quite a bit of attention and research over the last few years due to patient engagement.
In 2021, research revealed that videos eliciting either positive or negative emotional responses had higher engagement rates . In fact, there were similar findings reported the following year focusing specifically on Instagram videos posted by surgeons that emphasized a personal or comedic stance had much higher follower engagement than typical promotional content.
Consider behind-the-scenes glimpses of your practice, patient testimonial videos, and even explainer videos illustrating surgical techniques.
Social Media Engagement
Regular posts can help plastic surgeons establish themselves as leaders in the field. Think about sharing educational content that dispels common myths, posting informative Q&A sessions, and offering live demonstrations of innovative procedures.
Since at least 2012, people have been going to social media and reporting their aesthetic surgery experiences. Many patients already used social media to track down and communicate with doctors. Just one year later, in 2013, a group of doctors from UCLA studied the effects of plastic surgeon interaction on various social media platforms with the public and found that the majority (75%) believed that social media directly enhanced patient education.
Social media has transformed the public perception and reach of plastic surgeons. Just seven short years later, in 2020, a study was released detailing that in some instances training programs were actually now using applicants’ engagement statistics on various social media platforms as part of their review and selection process . Social media completely disrupted how people go about obtaining information, how they get care, and even the way training and recruiting were handled.
Crafting a Winning Plastic Surgery Content Strategy
This discussion brings us to the most important part of it all: actually putting your plan into practice. Creating successful plastic surgery content is not just about throwing out information and hoping something sticks. A focused approach requires these key strategies:
Target Audience Identification
The very first thing you want to do is define exactly who it is you are aiming to reach with your content. If you can nail down what their age, demographics, and key concerns are you can create far more impactful content. Once you better understand who they are, you can better grasp where they like to hang out online. This way you know exactly where to publish your material.
Keyword Research
This research goes far deeper than you may think. Knowing what terms potential patients are plugging into search engines can make or break how discoverable your content actually is. “Rhinoplasty”, “facelift”, or “tummy tuck” are probably going to come up, so using tools like Semrush or Ahrefs will ensure that the terms people search for will match up to your content and get you the results you are seeking.
Long-Form Plastic Surgery Content
Many are overwhelmed when deciding if they should get a surgical procedure done. This hesitation makes total sense when you consider just how expensive these procedures can be. Not to mention that complications can be both physically damaging as well as financially devastating. Blogs containing high-quality long-form content can help build confidence and trust with prospective patients.
Longer-form content is going to help with your SEO so ensure you thoroughly and comprehensively answer common patient questions. You’ll also want to optimize for user experience and incorporate all relevant keywords.
Visual Appeal
People are strongly affected by visuals. High-quality images and videos that educate and inspire them are key. However, make sure you strictly adhere to all HIPAA regulations and follow strict consent procedures when posting images or videos involving patients.
Measuring Success
You are going to want to know how well all your hard work is doing. Google Analytics gives insights into your audience engagement. Look at your bounce rate, average session duration, along with pages-per-visit metrics.
These metrics can help inform any future changes to your approach. Tools such as heatmaps allow you to analyze user behavior so you know what captures a visitor’s attention. Social media analytics can provide detailed information about the performance of posts and help you track follower demographics, reach, engagement levels, and more. Don’t neglect email analytics either.
Consistent Optimization
Creating content takes consistent effort. Stay abreast of any emerging technologies, new search trends, algorithm updates, and trending discussions. Be sure to stay involved with various industry events and webinars so you don’t fall behind the times.
Ethics
Any content promoting a medical practice has ethical and legal responsibilities to patients. While content marketing is valuable, ethical concerns involving informed consent must be addressed. Any marketing content involving images and videos must adhere to guidelines outlined by medical boards in the areas you operate.
If you hope to attract the right kind of clientele while also promoting high ethical standards and best practice policies, you should understand all legal and ethical concerns and responsibilities involving marketing plastic surgery to prospective patients.
Conclusion
Creating great plastic surgery content requires far more than just throwing some keywords and medical facts onto a page and hoping something good comes of it. While it may have been adequate just a decade ago, things have shifted profoundly. Now you must be adept at staying abreast of algorithm changes, user preferences, ethical boundaries, and more. By strategically addressing all of these concerns in a well-thought-out format, you’ll reach more people with your information, build lasting trust, and see conversions and referrals surge.
