Content creation can be a highly beneficial part of your overall marketing plan, but there are ways to do it that make it more effective, and one of those ways is to work out a plan before you start. In this article, we’re going to look at content marketing tips for plastic surgeons and show you how to create a monthly content calendar that will make your content marketing easier.
Why is creating content so important to your online visibility?
According to Demand Metric, “content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing”, and “per dollar spent, content marketing generates 3 X as many leads as traditional marketing.” They also found that 70% of potential customers would rather learn about a company through reading articles than by watching or reading an advertisement, and that “82% of people feel more positive about a company after reading custom content.”
With statistics like that, it’s hardly surprising that content marketing is more popular than ever with companies. It genuinely does have an impact on the bottom line.
Great content is one of Google’s most important ranking factors when determining visibility, and content helps keep your online presence recent, relevant, and authoritative so Google and other search engines have confidence and trust in ranking your business highly.
Not only that, but the right content at each stage can persuade your potential customers through your sales funnel from having only just heard about your practice to buying your services.
Quality content builds trust, boosts your brand, establishes your authority and expertise, and can turn complete strangers into raving fans.
It’s not a quick, ‘insta-fix’ where you can switch it on tomorrow and guarantee floods of new customers through your door the day after. Content marketing does take time and patience, but the results can be well worth the effort.
Quick tips for content marketing success
A little prep before you start goes a long way with content marketing. As well as your content calendar, which we’ll talk about in the next section, here’s what to focus on to set yourself up for success:
Know your audience
So much of marketing is tailored to each individual business, but if ever there was an immutable law of marketing, it’s this one. You can’t market properly if you don’t know who you’re marketing to! Obvious, right? But so many people seem to prefer the approach of flinging spaghetti against a wall and hoping some of it will stick.
However, if you take the time to look at your audience and find out who they are and what they want, to look at what questions they’re asking and how they prefer to hear the answers, then you are way ahead of many businesses already.
Messaging
Getting it right with messaging isn’t just about what you say, it’s also about how you say it. When you’re getting to know your audience, it’s important that you look at the language they use and the words they use when asking questions. Not only is this helpful for using the right keywords so you can be found in the search results, but you’ll also build up a connection with your audience much more quickly if you talk to them in a way that resonates with them.
In addition, it’s worth doing research into how your audience likes to consume content. There are many different content types, including blog posts, videos of various lengths, infographics, live streaming, Q&As, case studies, and more. Find out which type(s) of content your audience prefers and deliver what they want to hear in a format that suits them. Your content will be consumed more readily by your intended audience and you’ll get more bang for your buck with better results.
Platforms
The next question is where should you publish your content? Of course, you want the maximum effect when posting content. You want the most people possible to see it and interact with it. One way to do that is to find out where your target audience hangs out and what times of day are the best to post.
You can find out what times are the best to post by taking a look at your stats on your social media platforms and your website. Check out when you get the most interaction with your posts and try to post more at those times.
Finding the right platforms to post on matters a lot in terms of visibility. Again, your stats can tell you a lot about how many visitors you’re getting and how much engagement but, for social media, we’d recommend Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram for your plastic surgery practice.
You’ll also want to post excellent content on your website, both on your sales pages and your blog, to build trust and authority.
Other places to ensure you have a presence are Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), and other business directories. Google Business Profile, as the name suggests, is owned by the biggest search engine in the world, and you can post, interact with patients and potential patients, share answers to frequently asked questions, and more.
5 Steps to Creating a Monthly Content Calendar
Why use a monthly content calendar (also known as an editorial calendar)? Well, there’s this statistic from the Content Marketing Institute to consider:
“Four out of five top performers use an editorial calendar (only half of the least successful do).”
A content calendar also helps you prepare content in advance so you aren’t rushing, ensures you don’t waste time wondering what to write about and helps you plan your content for the biggest impact. You can also plan seasonal campaigns.
Step 1: Understand your patients
We’ve covered this to a certain extent above when talking about knowing your audience, but it really is such a vital part of any marketing activity that it’s worth mentioning again.
As well as learning about who your target audience is, what they want, and what sort of questions they are asking, it is also worth learning about their pain points and struggles. The more you can empathize and connect with your audience, the better, and the more you’ll set yourself apart from practices that don’t do this.
Some potential clients for plastic surgery may have self-esteem issues and a lack of confidence. They may worry about what’s involved in a surgery, how much it might hurt, and how long the recovery time will be. If you can answer their questions, using their own language, and reassure them that you are the expert to trust, you are far more likely to convert them into patients.
Look at their search behaviors and patterns to help with what keywords and phrases to use, what they are asking, what concerns them, and what they are looking for in a plastic surgery practice.
When posting content, don’t overdo the jargon. You need to strike a balance between sounding like the expert you are and keeping it simple enough for people to follow.
Step 2: Determine the frequency
How often you should publish new content depends on your audience to an extent. You don’t want to overwhelm them, but at the same time, you don’t want to post so infrequently that they don’t remember who you are when you do. You’re aiming to build a relationship and to connect, to nurture that relationship and turn strangers into leads that eventually buy. While you’ve got to be realistic and practical about how often you have the time to post, you also need to keep your audience in mind here too.
Set goals for your content posting based on each social platform and your blog. As we mentioned above, your statistics can give you a good idea of what to post and when to post, which can be refined over time as you get used to content marketing and have more statistics to look back on.
On Google Business Profile, the minimum is to post once every 7 days as your posts expire after that, but 2 – 3 times a week is a good rule of thumb.
With your email newsletter, again, it’s a case of learning your audience and looking at your statistics. Some businesses swear by emailing once a day without fail, while others do very well with sending emails once a week.
Some statistics to bear in mind:
“Companies with blogs produce 67% more leads per month than those without”
“The three most popular content formats are blog posts (86%), case studies (42%), and customer success stories (36%).”
“For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect to earn a staggering $42 back.”
All from G2’s 111+ Digital Marketing Statistics You Need to Know.
Step 3: Identify Content Themes
What is a content theme? Your themes are basically the main topics you write about. For us, we focus on content marketing, social media, local SEO, marketing software, and so on. Each topic is related in some way to what we do and what our audience is interested in. For a plastic surgery practice, you might focus on general education about plastic surgery and how-to guides and checklists, like how to prepare for surgery, what to bring with you, and other ideas.
Hubspot has an excellent article on content themes, which they call topic clusters. In the article, they explain that the search engines are now focusing on topic-based content, so writing your content around a theme is an excellent idea, not just for your patients, but also for SEO purposes.
You could also include seasonal content and special offers and promotions when planning your content calendar.
Step 4: Brainstorm topics
Spend some time brainstorming new content ideas and thinking about what content your audience wants, as well as how they want it delivered.
Create a list of topic ideas that you can refer to if you’re ever feeling stuck and keep adding to it over time, so you never run out of ideas.
One obvious way to do this is to take a look at what your competitors are doing, not to copy, but for inspiration. If, for example, they write an article on the advantages of a particular type of plastic surgery, you could write an article on how to prepare for that type of plastic surgery.
You could also look on Quora, which is a popular question and answer website. People post questions about a whole range of different topics and both laypeople and experts can answer them. Not only might you find great questions and topics for your content here, but it can be worth answering some questions as an expert too. You’ll build your authority and attract new potential clients, and it also gives you backlinks to your site for SEO.
Step 5: Create your calendar
With all the work you’ve done to prepare, this is actually the easy bit!
Go through your list of content ideas and, bearing in mind the posting frequency for each platform, add topics to different dates you’ve marked as publication days.
Try to ensure you’re posting on a variety of topics and with different content types to keep things fresh and interesting.
Once your content calendar is done, you’ll have a plan for your content marketing that should keep you on track and help you be consistent with your posting.
Pro tip: Be flexible. Yes, your plan is a good idea, but try to be sensitive to current events and trends. If you spot something trending in the news that you can tie into your content marketing, don’t be afraid to adjust your schedule and post that instead, or post it on top of your usual plan. Writing about current trends can boost your visibility and your target audience.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo
We hope you’ve found our content marketing tips for plastic surgeons helpful and that you now have things you can put into practice to make you even more successful.
To add to that, why not book a demo of our local marketing platform?
Our software has been specifically designed for local businesses who need to focus their time and money tightly on marketing. Our clients don’t have time to waste on things that don’t work or on swapping from one software system to another to get their marketing done. They want everything in one place, where they can easily post, schedule, and manage all of their marketing. And they want to be able to see statistics on how they are doing, right on their local marketing platform.
With Surefire’s all-in-one marketing platform, you can get all of that and manage your content creation workflow from start to finish all from one place. You can manage your content calendar from anywhere with an all-in-one platform accessible across devices and browsers, so whenever inspiration strikes, you can act on your latest idea and have it done and out there before your competition can react.
