Know Your Numbers

Here’s an interesting 2021 plastic surgery marketing trend that affects you…

“There will be no more silver bullets everyone will have to optimize for marginal gains.”

In the past, you could pick one or two main marketing channels (your silver bullets) and live off of them to get you the cosmetic patient leads you needed to run a successful practice.

Not anymore. There is just too much noise in the world today.

PLASTIC SURGERY MARKETING IN 2021

Look at the list I came up with within one minute, in no particular order, and I’m sure there are plenty more:

• Website Design

• Real Self

• Link-Building

• YouTube

• Practice Newsletter

• TV Ads or PR

• Radio Ads or PR

• Cable Ads or PR

• Public speaking

• Retargeting Banner Ads

• Direct mail

• Email

• Texting

• Patient Events

• Press Releases

• SEO

• PPC

• Articles

• Blog

• Directories

• Doctor Referrals

• Alliances

• Fundraisers

• Billboards

• Print Ads

• Banners

• Social Media Posting

• FB/IG/Linkedin Ads

• Chat Bot

Crazy right? You will never have enough time, money, or energy to use all of these cosmetic patient marketing channels.

But that’s not all. There are also too many technology choices that need to be considered carefully so you don’t end up with a coat-hanger 😉

And, not to pile on, but there are also too many generational differences since you may be catering to patients in their 20’s up to patients in their 70’s.

So, what do you do? How do you make sense out of all these variables, so you create your plastic surgery marketing plan and invest your resources wisely?

Know Your Numbers

The answers you are looking for are in your numbers. When you collect and review your data from your plastic surgery marketing efforts, you have a better picture of what is driving your success.

But this cannot be anecdotal. Take the emotion out of it and look at real data that doesn’t lie.

The fastest and easiest way is to follow your successes first.

In other words, “follow the money.” There’s no need to get all fancy and go off on a tangent at this stage.

Just review where your revenues are currently coming from and go back for more.

Revenues by Procedure

Start by running a report called, “Revenues by Procedure”. This will show you which of your procedures are more profitable and which should be re-evaluated since they don’t bring in the revenues worth the effort.

Sometimes (most of the time), less is more is the way to go. Drop the busy work that is not bringing in the revenues so you can redirect your focus to the procedures that are.

For example, this pie chart below shows this practice’s big hits are injectables, Coolsculpt, and facelifts. Good to know when they are considering their marketing plan.

However, skincare is the loser at 1% of revenues. Yet, I watch so many practices put a ton of effort into this thanks to their skincare reps, but is that the best use of your resources given the data?

Revenues by Referral Source

Another great plastic surgery marketing report to pull is “Revenues by Referral Source.” This tells you how your patients hear about you.

This data is crucial to know so you can allocate your time and money to those marketing channels that are directly attracting new patients to your practice.

Again, this cannot be anecdotal. It’s too easy for your ego to trip you up here. You may love to see your name in lights but just be sure it’s bringing you results.

However, the referral source is not so cut and dry in today’s technical age. What I mean is when you ask a prospective patient who calls your office how they heard about you, they will oftentimes say “the Internet or google”.

However, as they get to know you better and open up, the answer can change to a girlfriend mentioned you, so they check out your Instagram and that led them to your website and that’s why they said the Internet.

If that happens, just be sure you update your data for accuracy.

As you can see from the pie chart below, this plastic surgery practice was about 50/50 Internet and relationships via current patients returning for more and referrals from patients and spas.

Social media is only 1% of their revenues, and magazine ads were 0%. If I were consulting with them, I would recommend they take the magazine ad budget and reallocate it to investing in referrals instead – using The KiSS Club.

I would also recommend they outsource the social media unless the surgeon gets serious about participating in the content.

There are a lot more numbers to know but do you see how knowing just these two data points will give you such good intel to make better business decisions about where to invest your time and money on marketing certain procedures using certain marketing channels?

Plastic Surgery Marketing Data Tracking Tools

In order for you to accurately track data, there are lots of tools and technology available.

Your plastic surgery marketing software is the control tower that collects all data. Please be sure you choose a CRM platform that is data-friendly when it comes to entering data and retrieving data.

Because it doesn’t matter if you can input it if you can’t get it to come out in a format that tells you vital information.

The good news with all of this technology at our fingertips is that it’s tracking all clicks and links, so get familiar with google and social media analytics.

Phone calls and lead tracking platforms are also super helpful to track data. Or at least use google sheets to collect data that can be updated regularly by all parties involved.

I will leave you with this motivating quote, “Money is Attracted to Clarity” so happy tracking!

Of course, if you can use help with your plastic surgery practice marketing, please reach out to me at www.CatherineMaley.com

Tune into my Podcast Beauty and the Biz: EP 121 Know Your Numbers