Are You Maintaining Your Lead Funnel?

So far, 2024 is feeling a lot more like 2018 than 2022. What do we mean by that? The post-covid years were a boom time for plastic surgery and medical aesthetics, with many people practically begging for appointments. But what goes up must come down, and the softening of demand that started last year is continuing this year for most of our clients.

But all is not lost. Our clients were doing pretty darn well before covid and to some extent, resetting expectations can go a long way from feeling down in the dumps about the lower lead volume. That being said, it’s not the best time to sit on your hands! If the sound of crickets is just a bit too loud in your office, it’s time to take a closer look at your lead funnel.

Defining the Lead Funnel

A very simple concept in theory, lead funnels are actually highly complex these days and require constant tweaking and testing to work properly. A lead funnel narrows down the universe of all prospective patients over a series of steps that ends with an actual lead contacting your practice. It can look something like this:

How to Configure Your Funnel

In the good ol’ days, figuring out how your leads found you was all about asking the classic question “How’d you hear about us?” on an intake form and giving options like From a Friend, Phone Book (here’s what that was, kids), Radio Ad, etc.

It ain’t anywhere near that simple now. The factors that go into a prospect’s decision to contact your office can be quite divergent in time and space, and almost never is there “just one thing” that caused a lead to contact you. This means that you need to do more work to determine the biggest factors driving your lead volume, and then narrow in on those with the right marketing messages.

The journey within the lead funnel will be different for each prospect. Here might be just a couple of different journeys:

• Saw a funny video you promoted on Facebook -> Thought for a few years whether they were ready to have surgery -> Googled “best plastic surgeon near me” -> Remembered you from social media and liked your website -> Filled out a lead form on your site
• Heard about you from a friend -> Kept your name in a note on their phone -> Saw the friend again a year later for lunch -> Looked you up and messaged you on Instagram
• Saw your name as a sponsor of a local sports team -> Googled you and clicked a Google Ad at the top of the page -> Called your office from the Google Ad

With so many different possibilities, how do you focus your marketing efforts?

Working from the Bottom Backwards

The best method we’ve found of creating healthy lead funnels is to start with your end goal (a phone call or lead form submission) and work backwards all the way to that lead’s first impression of your practice. Most often, that initial impression is NOT about exactly what you offer. Look again at the examples above. Those people wanted to laugh, wanted to connect with a friend, or wanted to support the people who support their kids’ activities.

It pays to think bigger picture about what needs your prospects may have, and to laser focus on fulfilling those needs. For example, if you want to focus on rhinoplasty surgery, talking all day long about rhinoplasty is not the best way to reach your widest audience. Instead, think about what young women and men who ultimately have nose surgery are going through. Are they feeling self conscious? Being teased? Struggling with identity? Concerned about finances? All of these touchpoints present opportunities for you to help them address a need, even if it’s not yet directly related to surgery.

Lead Generation Ideas

Our clients often only focus on the lead funnel steps that are closest to the end goal of getting a new lead submission. Running Google Ads, building up organic Google search presence, being active on social media. And there’s good reason to do this – after all, these are folks who are highly likely to convert and near the end of the buying cycle.

But in the long term, it pays to reach farther back in the funnel, where you can make a branding impression and keep in touch with an even bigger group of prospects. How do you do that? Let’s look at a couple examples:

• Webinar/Instagram Live – By putting your face (and your expertise) out there for more people, you are offering a valuable interaction and able to address a wide range of needs and questions, many of which you may not have ever thought of before. After the live event, following up with attendees with even more valuable content is an excellent way to reinforce the relationship.
• Ebook – We’ve done these for clients over the years and some have surprisingly long legs. Offering an ebook in exchange for a person’s contact information is a great way to get value while giving value. We usually like to pair this tactic with a drip email campaign to encourage the lead to stay in touch and (hopefully) take the next step in booking an appointment.
• Treatment Planner – Though you live and breathe cosmetic surgery and aesthetic treatments all day long, a lot of people don’t necessarily know what exactly they want. They just want to look and feel better. For this audience, offering a treatment planner where they can begin to understand “what they don’t like about themselves” and what options you offer to address their cosmetic concerns can be a major value-add.

Establishing a Lead Database

You no doubt have a process for handling leads after their initial contact. Some leads convert into consultations and surgery. Many don’t. What do you do with those “dead” leads? Successful practices work to classify and nurture those leads. This can be done through manual follow up but is much better when set up through marketing automation.

A well-tended lead database will constantly have new leads entering the funnel, and reclassify leads based on follow ups and actions taken (or not taken). Leads that have not yet converted can be given different statuses, with different follow up actions depending on status. For instance, one cohort may receive a weekly drip email campaign. Another may get added to a monthly text blast about special offers. Still others may get an invite to a yearly open house event.

You can be confident in the value of your leads, and the strength of your lead funnel, when you invest in content that answers key questions and addresses important needs. Provide value in myriad ways, and beyond your core skill set and service offerings. Enough valuable prospects, treated and nurtured in the right way, eventually will become paying patients.