Podcast Transcript for hearing impaired

Okay, everybody, welcome to another edition of elevated with Marcia. I'm your host, Marcia Hawkins, and I'm with my colleague, Mike Athas of the Marsha Hawkins agency. Today we're going to be talking about marketing, online marketing for the plastic surgery industry. And I selected this one today, Mike, because of how.

Well, first of all, I probably need a little work, but more importantly, the level of how competitive it is. M they call it the Kardashian factor right now. So I was talking to a friend of mine who's in the industry, and, um, I've worked for plastic surgeons, and they just tell me the same thing.

They're popping up on street corners and. Interesting. Unless you're board certified from, um, the board of plastic surgery, if you have a medical degree, you pretty much can perform plastic surgery. And a lot of doctors, in fact, a dentist that I do marketing for, is now offering Botox and microneedling.

Okay, how did that happen? So plastic surgeons are really not only competing within the industry, but they're competing with dermatology practices, they're competing with dentists. Um, I know that there's an eye doctor that does Lasik surgery that also offers Botox as well. So there's quite a bit of. And then, of course, you have the med spas that are now competing.

Um, they're not obviously, doing tummy tucks and facelifts, but they're offering a lot of the services in lieu of somebody having, um, surgery, if you will.

I just drove down the street, ah, as you're talking about this, I'm like, I just drove down the street and I saw a bunch of signs on the side of the road of just different places offering up Botox. So I feel like it's very competitive right now. You're absolutely right.

Very. It's expensive because they have a lot of the, um. First of all, you have the overhead. You have the overhead of your staff, the product itself, Botox and some of the permanent fillers and stuff like that. Those products are expensive. You have your insurance. I'm in the insurance industry.

I know it's expensive to, um, insure for services like that. So they have a lot, they're very top heavy on the overhead. Um, and it has become, I mean, I guarantee you now that we've communicated about this, my Facebook feed is just going to be inundated with botox and plastic surgeons.

And, uh, it'll be. That's probably because you're talking next to your phone right now. Yeah, I mean, I'm in the insurance industry, and one of the things we offer. Um, is this, um, policy where if you have. If you need an organ transplant, That it'll provide you with coverage on that.

Right. And so I'm on the phone talking to my clients all the time, and I have to read off what some of the benefits are of this particular policy. And lo and behold, I go to Facebook and in my feed is an organ donation cooler I can buy on.

But, yeah, but my point is that is just how competitive it is that I know when I go onto Facebook, I'm going to be inundated with all of the plastic surgeons, most likely in a geographical area that is going to try to, um, solicit their services to me because you and I are talking about plastic surgeons, and I love the idea of being able to market your plastic surgery practice on social media, but it's kind of like that's what everybody's doing in lieu of, um, building out a strong online presence on Google.

Because even if you saw a plastic surgeon on Facebook or Instagram, the first thing you're going to do is you're going to click over to their website or you're going to google them and then you're going to go to their website. I think it's a two part going to find, and it works for all sorts of different companies and businesses.

But yeah, you might find them as you're scrolling through on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or whatever, but you're always going to led back to the website because that's where you're going to get the real information. And it's like there's the link in the bio, and there's a link in the bio for a reason, because people want more information on things like that.

So having that website that fulfills the client's desires and wishes and gives them that information, it's so important because it's not just social media. Um, it's a multidimensional type of a search process that people go through to find the products and services they want. I want to bring something up because you made me think of something when you said that, and I can prove your point.

Okay, yeah. This is not an analogy I subscribe to, but do you know how people are absolutely crazy about their pets? They say if they put a child and a pet in a split screen, people will gravitate towards the pet, believe it or not. So when it comes to your pets, when it comes to your teeth, your smile, your oral health, when it comes to possibly doing something invasive like a tummy tuck or a facelift or, uh, I don't know, there's so many procedures I can't believe the amount of things you can change about yourself these days.

Plastic surgeries have going on. Yeah. I mean, people do shop price. I definitely know that that is always a factor, but I think, um, given the fact with information being so readily. Readily available that when, um, cheaper is not always better. And I think when people are investing in their vanity and they're investing in their pets and they're investing in their homes, um, I really believe that they want the best of the best.

People do shop price, but I also think people shop based on what you're able to provide them via your website. So I work on getting, um, reviews for our clients. I work on getting um, video content pushed out. We provide search engine optimization, website development, and a lot of the plastic surgeons and dentists and veterinarians, what they do is they use a service based on their industry that will give them a replicated website and they just change out the information and what they don't know.

Um, they may be very good at what they do, but they don't really know web development and web design and online marketing and video SEO and SEO the way we do. But that templated website is not going to outpush their competition because they're all the same. And Google does not read images, which is what a templated website is.

So what we provide is something much more comprehensive rather than just an image with a little bit of text on it. Behind our websites is like 150 story skyscraper that is just filled with content directed not only at your intended new patient, customer or client, but it's also intended to communicate with the major search engines like Google, yahoo, bing.

Is AOL even a thing anymore? I don't even know. I did have a client recently with an AOL address, but I don't know. I think that's, I mean, I think AOL is a dinosaur at this point. My point is, um, know you have to keep up with what is relevant right now and plastic surgeons and alike do not have time to manage their website. And we provide a pretty comprehensive, um, marketing package. But also if they just simply want a website with no marketing, we can offer that too.

And that website will be, um, a powerhouse so that if they decide they want to do marketing with it, it's ready to go. It's a matter of just working our magic and doing our daily maintenance, um, performance, uh, on the site so that we can get traffic over to them and get their phones ringing and get their waiting rooms filled with potential new patients.

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, so Mike, why don't you give your phone number so people can contact you if they're interested in getting. A new website for their plastic surgery practice with marketing services. Yeah, my cell phone is the best way to reach me. It's area code 703-309-5543 uh, and I'm happy to talk to anyone about getting a website up with, uh, uh, optimization to get clients in the door.

Yeah. And it's as easy as you and I getting on a Zoom with them, just like we're doing now for our, uh, podcasting is to get on with them and kind of walk them through the process. And they can basically put their online marketing. And we offer other things.

We do podcasting on SiriusxM. We have a lot of other services that we can offer, but honestly, our consultations, there's no cost for that. But we can really explain where we kind of break away from the pact with all those processed marketing companies that are out there that are going to sell the same exact marketing package to them as they sold to their competitors.

Yeah, perfect. All right, you've been listening to elevating with Marcia, with Mike Athas and Marcia Hawkins again. Mike, what's your phone number? 703-309-5543 all right. Give Mike a call, text message, and we will get a Zoom meeting set up to explain our services. Thanks again for tuning in.