From the trout pout and duck lips to butt lifts gone wrong and cleft palates, cosmetic and reconstructive surgery are tight markets. And, it's not that easy to carve out (pun intended) a defined market position.  When one considers the nature of their work, it can occasionally come out less than perfect.  It is estimated that less than 1% of all procedures have difficulties; 25,000 last year.  Butt let's face it, nothing is perfect and when things go sideways with a person's physical body, it's extremely noticeable, and makes the news quickly. 

So, cosmetic and reconstructive surgeons don't have it as easy as the television shows and public perspective might reflect. 

A lot can go wrong with the artistic and medical blend of skills, although the vast majority of procedures produce impressive results.  Aiding those who have the misfortune of both physical and psychological damage to their health, there is also the purely “personal need” or desire to change their outward appearance.

The ability to maintain a cosmetic or reconstructive surgeon’s professional reputation depends on the patient’s end-result, as well as their emotional state when all is said and done. Being skilled in these fields is demanding and pressure-packed.

Augmented Reality

Here’s an image found in the dailymail.co.uk of the Paris Hilton look-alike, actress, and model Ms. Chantelle Houghton. This after/before photo pair shows how the marvel of breast augmentation can positively affect the self-image, self-esteem, and confidence of one that elects to go under the knife.

Although both images show a smile, they are obviously different.  The one on the right reflects a somewhat shy, almost timid young woman. The left pic shows the same woman with new-found confidence and self-esteem.

Image Credit: DailyMail.co.uk 

As the image pair shows, the positive attitudinal change is evident. The smile tells all, and emotions are critical in assessing potential patients.

By understanding more about your ideal patient and how you can best attract them to your practice, you can maximize your revenues, but minimize the “quick to decide, quicker to judge” would-be patients.

Know Who You Are and Who You Are For

The process of identifying your ideal patient begins with you. Knowing all you can about yourself is the key to unlocking the ideal patient mystery.  What do you stand for? What are you against? What’s your why?

Are you only in it for the money? Or, is your reasoning more altruistic? What don’t you like about your profession as an entire industry? Are you enchanted with the before and after for personal ego-stroking?

Or, do you travel to far-away lands to repair cleft lips and palettes in poverty-stricken children to give back? You see, there are a lot of questions to get deep into the essence of your professional choices and your ideal patient. 

Image Credit: Children’s Hospital

Do you have an issue with those professionals that don’t really care about the patient outcome as much as you think they should? Or, are you the person that will do anything for a patient as long as the money is green? Who and what are you, anyway? What’s your Why?

Once you have a clear understanding of Who You Are, and Why you do what you do, it’s time to figure out precisely Who You Are For.  Knowing the Who, What and Why of your inner self can provide clues to who you believe you are for. 

Who’s Your Ideal Patient

Is your ideal client a woman in her twenties that can’t live without a butt lift and breast augmentation? Or is it someone who is suffering from the pain of misfortune and birth defects? Are accident victims who require reconstructive surgery your best patient? 

Do you specialize in Rhinoplasty where gender doesn’t come into play? Or is there a specific gender that your purpose serves?

This is precisely how knowing the Who, What, and Why of YOUR inner self will help determine your ideal patient.

Once You Know

You’ve gone through the examinations of your feelings, belief system, and core values, and have determined the ideal patient that matches your inner self. Now what?

Have you a business plan? What about a marketing strategy and tactical plan?

Do you have a solid foundation from which to construct a meaningful content creation and distribution plan?  

Your audience is out there. There' no denying that, you simply need to become magnetic; attracting them with resonating content. 

Educate and Inform

Beyond referrals, the best way to attract ideal patients is to educate and inform them with quality content. Attracting a fully-informed patient is far more comfortable than the old form of advertising; “buy from me because I'm the best, just ask me!” People really don’t care about how great you are, they care that what you do will give them the desired outcomes they seek. They are looking for a transformation and you need to show them how YOU do that.

All of your marketing and advertising should come in the form of direct response.  The colossal mistake professional service providers make (you’re not the only ones) is offering a me, me, me approach to marketing. People already expect you to be a 5-Star rated doctor and Board Certified. They expect to receive Great Patient Service. So don't talk about about the things that would make them say, "I should hope so". They want to know the WIIFM – What’s In It For Me?

Magnetic Attraction Through KLTR

Know, Like, Trust and Respect.  Inbound marketing that educates informs, engages, and resonates with those best-suited to be your ideal patients is the formula for success.  By attracting patients rather than chasing them, you’ll have a much better reputation, higher-level of a patient, better referrals, and a whole bunch more of revenues generated.

If the content you produce or pay for is multi-channel, multi-media crafted, and consistently available for consumption, you’ll be way ahead of so-called competitors. With the right “direct-response oriented” messaging, and media distribution, you’ll attract and keep your audience connected and build that relationship so vital to magnetism.

It’s one thing to post a video once in a while, a blog another time, or some social media posts.  Without consistency, your efforts are unappreciated and more than likely ignored.  If your content is engaging and pertinent to the audience for which it is aimed, they will come to expect some routine.  Or they find others who satisfy their need.

Remember, there are others in your same business sector vying for attention just the same as are you.  Who will win is the one most engaging.

To schedule an appointment for a free strategy session to discuss where you’re at and where you’d like to be, please click the link below to book a day and time that is convenient to you. 

Cheers!

PS – Surgeons - You offer hope. You build self-confidence.  Your services are valuable and desirable.  So, develop your magnetic messaging with that in mind. Call or book an appointment to learn how.