Real patient testimonials for your medical spa, plastic surgery clinic, or cosmetic dermatology practice, third-party endorsements, media coverage these can all differentiate your cosmetic clinic, improve your professional image, and convince potential patients to initiate contact.

Medical spa marketing with search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (ppc) and direct mail can put your clinic in front of potential patients, but great patient testimonials can provide the needed level of ‘trust’ to initiate a first phone call or walk in.

The three types of third party validation for medical spas, plastic surgeons, and cosmetic dermatologists:

Direct Patient Testimonials: You’ve seen this if you’re not already doing it. Prominent display of your patients saying nice things about you.

Trusted Associations: FACS, ASAPS, AAD, or ASDS logos on your site are put there to build patient trust. It works. Of course, these medical associations understandably restrictive and very protective of what the consider to be their turf. This leads to less restrictive medical associations forming. The reason MAPA was formed was to add some legitimacy to a group of non-core physicians practicing cosmetic medicine.

Third Party Endorsements & Validations: The Botox ‘diamond level injector is an example of third party endorsement as are others that are run by medical service companies to try to help their customers. (If Medical Spa MD links to your site it’s also a third party endorsement.) Interestingly, third party endorsements actually have a more favorable impact on the web than association endorsements since the third party is often more ‘relevant’ to the information that a potential patient is interested in.

Receiving these kinds of accolades or promotions from prominent third-party players is valuable, it validates your efforts and provides potential patients a level of instant comfort that you’ve already been checked out and are validated.

Subtle changes to the way you’re handling your patient testimonials and third party endorsements can produce dramatic effects, especially online, where the majority of patients are now searching for information.

Medical Spa MDs quick strategies for piling up and using patient endorsements:

Target the places your patients already are: First and most importantly is your existing medical spa or cosmetic practice but you’ll be able to reach far out into the community and gain the endorsements of other prominent businesses and individuals.

Identify third-party recognition programs from sites like MedicalSpaMD.com: These are most often paid inclusion but there are ways to get these types of third party endorsements for free, or at reduced cost.

Create good write-ups to be used at any time: Uncover the ways you need to build these kinds of marketing materials so that you can use them on your own site and turn them into patient traffic.

Provide ready-made strong human interest and strong visuals: Patients and the media love photos. If your fractional laser resurfacing before and after pictures suck, you’re losing traffic and paying patients. Learn how to manage your photos and make them more than just snapshots.

Give patient testimonials prominent placement: If you don’t have your patients smiling photo, full name, and a stellar testimonial, you’re less effective that you could be. Learn how to get patient testimonials that are truthful, candid, and really work.

Look for latent patient traffic, not spikes, from these techniques: The effective use of third party endorsements and patient testimonials work and drive patient flow, but it’s not a technique that provides an instant boost. It’s begins a trend and compounds over time.

If you’re not using patient testimonials and third party endorsements to drive patient flow, start now, your medial spa, cosmetic dermatology clinic, or plastic surgery practice will benefit far into the future.