At last month’s ASAPS conference in New York, I was encouraged to see the number of doctors who are coming to understand how valuable social media can be in promoting their practice. Slowly but surely, more and more aesthetic professionals are realizing that engaging with consumers online is the future and that they can do [...]
Tag Archives | Brand marketing
Go with the Flow: 3 Channels to Connect with Aesthetic Consumers
We spend a lot of time at RealSelf talking about the “consumer decision journey” for a very simple reason: When people begin considering cosmetic surgery, they really are embarking on a journey. It can take weeks, months or years as they consider and evaluate their options and it can extend long after the fact as [...]
Posting for Profit: 7 Benefits of Doctor Blogging
As an adjunct professor, pediatric ENT surgeon and CEO and chief medical officer of Annica Media, Russell Faust would seem to have his hands full, a jam-packed schedule and plenty of reasons not to take on the potential time-suck of social media. And yet, despite all that, he’s not only a firm believer in the [...]
More than Scores: Reviews Trump Ratings for Patients and Doctors
If you’re looking to score well with aesthetic consumers, the folks at PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) have a little advice: Stop! As the Institute notes in a new report, “Scoring Healthcare: Navigating customer experience ratings,” doctors who focus on stars, letter grades and other one-dimensional ratings miss an excellent opportunity to connect with patients, [...]
5 Reasons Why Good Reviews Are Good for Business
5 stars. 2 thumbs up. A++. When it comes to trusting information found on the Internet, there’s no escaping the fact that consumers give online reviews, well, glowing reviews. In fact, despite occasional reports of “astroturfing,” it seems they put more trust in them all the time. In fact, according to a survey conducted by [...]
For Doctors, the Future of Marketing Is on Demand
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking that consumers are just too demanding, brace yourself. According to the folks at McKinsey, you ain’t seen nothing yet as evolving technology and rising consumer expectations are setting the stage for the next great stage in marketing. It’s called on-demand marketing and doctors who ignore it run the risk [...]
For Doctors, Providing Relevant Content is the Key to Social Success
If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated by Facebook, you’re not alone. Between disappearing posts, questionable conversion rates and a steady stream of platform changes, it’s not surprising that many doctors find the site a mixed blessing at best. Case in point: The site’s latest update which entails giving users far more flexibility in determining what [...]
Infographic Friday: Successful Social Media Starts with Strategy
“If everybody jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you jump off it too?” If you’re like us, you probably heard that line a lot when you were young and about to do something that was destined to have an unpleasant outcome. These days, it’s just as relevant for doctors who see their peers engaging with [...]
Recent HIPAA Update Adds Requirements for Marketing Your Practice
As a board-certified aesthetic professional, it goes without saying that you go to great lengths to protect patient privacy. However, it now appears that you may need to go even further. Earlier this year, the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new HIPAA rules than not only update the Act’s privacy and security [...]
Infographic Friday: Don’t Get Canned for Sending Email Spam
How many emails do you get a day? 50? 100? Whatever the actual number, chances are you get so many that you make the decision whether to read them or delete them in a fraction of a second. The problem is that our daily email overload sometimes means that legitimate messages — newsletters you’ve subscribed [...]
The 5Cs of Social Healthcare: Keep the Commitment to Stay Top of Mind (Part V in a series)
Content, conversations, channels and code of conduct. As noted in previous posts, these four concepts form the pillars of successful social media marketing. Yet in and of themselves they won’t help you grow your practice without the fifth C of social healthcare: Commitment. Unlike buying an ad or mailing out brochures, social media is not [...]
Should Cosmetic Surgeons Post their Prices Online?
As we’ve noted before, aesthetic consumers are smart, social and increasingly analytical when it comes to making decisions about procedures and providers. In fact, thanks to the abundance of information on the Internet, they’re using the same criteria — reading reviews, comparing providers — to evaluate tummy tucks that they do for tablets and TVs. [...]
The Future of Healthcare Marketing: 4 Trends to Watch this Year
Wondering what the coming year portends in terms of marketing your practice? The folks at healthcare marketing agency Franklin Street have given it some serious thought and identified four trends that will reshape how consumers find, select and interact with their providers in 2013 and beyond: Mobile Matters It’s official: There are now more smartphone [...]
Positive Outcome: Nielsen Report Highlights the Bright Side of Social Media
Why do consumers participate in social media? To hear some doctors tell it, they do so mostly to grouse and gripe but the reality is that the majority of people are not complainers online. In fact, if you were to ask people to describe their feelings after engaging in social media, 76% would respond [...]
Infographic Friday: Content + Context = Smart Internet Marketing
You’ve probably heard marketers use the phrase “content is king” but what does it really mean? In the simplest terms, it means that providing content — words, images, video, etc. — is an excellent way to engage with consumers. In marketing terms, it’s a tool to let people know who you are, how your products [...]
3 Rules for Remaining Relevant with Younger Patients
If you’ve been looking around your waiting room lately and thinking your patients and prospective patients are looking younger, you’re not alone. With more people in their 20s and early 30s opting for cosmetic surgery, doctors face a demographic shift that promises to impact every aspect of their profession. It’s a shift that’s both subtle [...]
Infographic Friday: Allocating Internet Resources? Appropriate Attribution Is the Answer
It’s December 2012 — do you know where your Internet prospects are (coming from)? Unfortunately, too many doctors don’t, relying instead on a superficial look at their website analytics to determine what sites directly deliver visitors to their practice website. That technique is called the “last-click method” and it’s time to recognize that its time [...]
5 Ways to Protect Patient Privacy (Yet Still Promote Your Practice)
TMI. Let’s face it, in a world where Kim Kardashian tweets her every thought, sharing Too Much Information is becoming a national pastime. That’s fine if you’re a reality TV star or other self-promoting celebrity. After all, Kanye West’s gal-pal doesn’t have to worry about HIPAA or other privacy laws. But for doctors, oversharing on [...]
Doctors Who Create Great Content Reap Multiple Benefits, Part II
As business manager for David B. Reath, MD, a plastic surgeon in Knoxville, Tennessee, Lisa Reath has heard all the reasons doctors offer for not embracing blogging, social media and the other elements of content marketing. Some say they’re too busy; others, that it’s just too confusing — arguments that she succinctly refuted with some [...]
Internet Marketing: Experts Offer Insights in Latest ASAPS Webinar
It’s almost 2013: Do you know where your Internet marketing plan is? If not, you should probably start thinking about it as next year and the years to come promise to be ones of rapid and major change. Keeping up with those changes is the key to staying ahead. That was the focus of a [...]
