How You Can Grow Your Cosmetic Procedure Practice with Patient Testimonials

Reputation is everything in the cosmetic procedure industry, and nothing can bolster your credibility quite like success stories from happy clients. Instead of “taking your word” that your services will positively impact the way they look and feel, testimonials let prospective patients hear directly from those who have been where they are and experienced the outstanding outcomes.

However, keep in mind that introducing testimonials to your practice’s marketing starts with asking patients to share their stories. Navigating this takes trust, understanding and patience. But taking the time to collect this invaluable content can benefit your practice and future patients for years to come.

Build human connections

Who doesn’t love a good story? Curiosity and empathy toward other people are part of what makes everyone human. This inherent empathy helps make testimonials so effective. Craft your curated testimonials to provide a human-interest angle for your would-be clients to connect with and better understand your cosmetic products and services.

You want to create a deeper, more emotional appeal for your practice. How? Personalize problems potential patients may have regarding their physical appearance. Think about common challenges. For instance, a bride-to-be might struggle to fit into her wedding dress on her wedding day but CoolSculpting or liposuction helped her get the shape she desired. Best practice is to connect what you do every day with transformational stories of your patients. Your practice (and its services) will instantly become more relatable.

Build trust and credibility

Fostering confidence and trustworthiness is essential to attracting new patients. Thus, it’s important that your current patients can relay these sentiments when highlighting their experiences.

This process means contacting repeat visitors and your most loyal clients for these takeaways. But, before asking for a review, be sure to reach out and present an opportunity for open dialogue, provide a message of value to the customer related to your services, or simply thanking them for doing business with you. You can also help alleviate the pressure that some clients may feel after receiving review requests by regularly engaging with them and maintaining those relationships.

Once you’ve collected these testimonials, they can then serve as word of mouth to build trust and credibility in a way that your marketing and social media can’t do on their own. Consumers trust online reviews (and testimonials) as much as personal recommendations, so your practice can gain a lot of credibility by leveraging them across your website, social media and marketing.

Put your best faces forward

Testimonials are excellent opportunities to illustrate your practice’s understanding of patient needs. Select a client story that represents your target audience, highlighting how your business helped them find cosmetic success and achieve their goal, to appeal to a larger audience that might have similar needs.

For example, leverage a client that’s lost a lot of weight but has excess skin that needs removal or a patient who wants to improve the appearance of their eyelids through blepharoplasty. Many of these procedures can be costly, so make sure you’re providing the tools to help them manage those costs with healthcare financing options .

Think digital and visual

Your website and social media are the digital equivalent of window displays for those looking for an aesthetician, facialist or cosmetic surgeon, and often a potential customer’s first impression of your practice. Make sure it’s a great one.

Place compelling client stories and testimonials front and center on your site, within your email campaigns and on all your social media profiles.

The cosmetic industry is inherently visual. Imagery and video content are going to engage potential customers more than written words. Leverage imagery with written testimonials or build out visual timelines that illuminate their entire journey. Invest in filming a few of your most enthusiastic patients. The videos will help their words come to life and tell your story across different media like your website, video platforms and social media — in a unique and compelling way.

Remember experience comes first

Building your reputation should be your primary goal with patient testimonials. Prioritize client experience first and the positive reviews and testimonials will follow. Instead of taking your word for it, prospective patients can take the word of your most satisfied clients, building trust by sharing experience.

Inspire greater testimonials by making sure your new leads receive flexible funding options with Ally Lending to help them affordably achieve their goals.