Category: Patient journey

Put yourself in the shoes of your potential clients for a moment. Let’s say that you (as the patient) want to correct wrinkles and sagging skin on your face and neck and have the money to pay a medspa to help you address the problem. Your health insurance is not going to cover this type of elective medical procedure, so all of the cost is going to come out of your own pocket. On the upside, because you aren’t using insurance, you have your pick of any medspa within a reasonable travelling distance. What is going to be the most important factor in your decision about which medspa to choose? It is going to be the medspa that you trust the most with your face, a critical part of your entire identify and your money. Here’s how to win the trust of your prospective clients.

How to Build Patient Trust

Qualifications and Certifications

The first thing potential clients want to find out if do you have the education, training and experience necessary to do a good job. So it is important to showcase any and all educational attainment, board certifications, licenses and certificates that prove that you know what you are doing when it comes to the procedure the client wants. These include:

  • The license and medical diploma of your medical director or supervising physician, preferably from a well-known university
  • For those performing injections, lasers, fillers and other procedures, nursing diplomas and certificates, and for those doing facials and less invasive treatments, aesthetician or cosmetologist licenses

  • National Coalition of Estheticians Associations (NCEA) Certification, a higher-level voluntary credential that raises standards beyond the base state license for estheticians.

  • National Med Spa Association (NMSA) accreditation for med-spa facilities, with standards for training, staffing, safety and equipment.

Your business, facility and employees need to have all of the education, certification and licenses required by your state, county and city. Make sure you have these all displayed in your lobby as well as on your website.

Demonstrable Experience

A prospective patient wants to know that her face isn’t your very first try at doing this procedure. If your medspa has been in business for a while, let people know how many of each procedure your staff has done. Showing the aggregated experience of your team can put patients at ease, knowing that your medspa has the necessary experience.

If you have a new tech, pair her with a more experienced person to eliminate uncertainty, mistakes and patient distrust.  Altogether new medspas may not have many years in business, but they can capitalize on the history of experienced staff.

  • Highlight number of each procedure done. For example, “XYZ Medspa has done over 2,000 Botox injections.”
  • Talk about years of experience or years in business. For example, “XYZ Medspa has served the Columbia area for 17 years” or “Our staff has a combined 45 years of experience doing laser treatments.”

Positive Outcomes

Once patients are reassured that your staff has both the education and experience needed, the next hurdle in building patient trust is demonstrating that your work has produced positive outcomes. The best way to do this is through before-and-after photos. There are two aspects here. First, do the after photos look better than the before? And secondly, is the improvement significant enough to justify the patient’s cost, pain and inconvenience?  

  • Select those patients with the best and most dramatic results.
  • For multi-session treatments, wait until after the last session has healed to take the “after” photo.
  • Ensure authenticity by taking photos without makeup or photo editing and touch-ups.
  • Post photos on your website and social media.

Clearly set Expectations

Be honest with the patient about what she can expect. Will this procedure magically erase the last 30 years? Probably not, but explain what it can do. If there are any factors that would prevent a stellar outcome, such as failing to regularly apply post-procedure products, let the patient know what they are upfront. It is also important to inform the patient about any risks or side effects and how likely they are to occur.

  • Place these caveats on the same page as your before-and-after photos underneath them.
  • Mention that outcomes are personal and vary from patient to patient.
  • Include a page detailing this information in your patient packet.

Transparent Pricing

Since all of the cost of your services is coming out of the patient’s pocket, you can build patient trust by providing transparent pricing. Share the price of each procedure as well as how many sessions it normally takes to see optimal results. If there are any additional costs for take-home products, mention that along with their prices.

  • If your prices are on the higher side for your market, you don’t need to post them on your website, but that makes it even more important to establish your value and build patient trust.
  • You may also want to provide financing options through CareCredit or RepeatMD.

Patient Delight

Notice here that we are not talking about patient satisfaction, but patient delight. Delighted patients consent to the publishing of before-and-after photos, write glowing reviews, film effusive testimonials and recommend your medspa to their friends. Of course, the patient will need to get great results in order to be delighted but there is more to it than that! 

Patient care in the office, follow up and post-procedure customer service are key in building patient trust throughout your relationship. Train your staff to be not just efficient but also friendly and empathetic. They should know each patient by name and be familiar with their file. Warm, friendly greetings at the beginning and end of each appointment and complements go a long way toward making patients feel comfortable and valued.

  • Mail a hand-written note after the patient’s first appointment thanking her for trusting your medspa with her aesthetic needs.
  • Have one of your staff call patients to follow up after procedures like laser treatments to see how they are doing with redness and irritation and offer solutions.
  • Send emails for birthdays with a little coupon for a product you sell in the office.

Patient journey from interest to appointmentThe Patient Journey Starts Online

Today’s healthcare journey begins long before a patient ever calls your office. Whether they’re exploring dental implants, a cosmetic procedure, or physical therapy options, most people start with a search engine and spend hours, possibly over a period of days or weeks, comparing providers. For elective healthcare practices, that means that the combination of an effective social media presence, online advertising, SEO, email marketing and website is your most powerful referral source.

But getting clicks isn’t enough — the real challenge is turning those clicks into consultations. This is how to grow an elective healthcare practice

Why Traditional Advertising Falls Short

Billboards, radio ads, and mailers still play a role in brand awareness, but they rarely drive direct action. Modern patients expect to research, evaluate, and schedule online — instantly. Without an effective lead-capture and follow-up system, even the most expensive campaigns can lose potential patients.

A well-structured digital strategy allows your practice to meet patients exactly where they are in their decision-making process, provide the right content for every step along the way and guide them toward booking their first appointment.

Mapping the Patient Journey: Awareness to Booking

Every elective healthcare patient moves through a series of stages before deciding to use your practice for her elective healthcare needs. Understanding these touchpoints helps you tailor your marketing.

  1. Interest – The patient realizes they have a need or interest (“I might want LASIK.”)
  2. Awareness and Research – They start comparing procedure options, reading physician reviews, and exploring costs.
  3. Consideration – They shortlist providers based on credibility, outcomes, and convenience.
  4. Decision – They reach out to ask questions, request a quote, or book a consultation.

If your healthcare clinic digital marketing doesn’t address each of these steps, patients may choose a competitor who does.

Generating Awareness

The three main ways of letting potential patients know that your practice exists and provides the type of service they are interested in are:

  • Search engine and social media advertising – Advertising goes after potential patients who are searching for keywords related to your expertise and services within a geographic area and sends them to your website or landing page.
  • Social media organic posts – A combination of educational posts, testimonials and promotional posts helps get the word out about your practice’s capabilities and outcomes. Focus on engagement to encourage follows but also include links to your website where leads can be captured.
  • Optimize your Google Business listing and work on SEO – Complete your profile including keywords, summary, website link and location so you show up in Google Maps.

Capturing Leads Before They Slip Away

Your website should be designed to capture interest the moment it appears.

That means including:

  • Simple, mobile-friendly forms — avoid long questionnaires; request only essential info.
  • Clickable phone numbers and chatbots — reduce friction for patients ready to act.
  • Clear calls to action — like “Schedule a Consultation” or “See Before & After Results.”
  • Trust signals — such as reviews, written and video testimonials, credentials, and before-and-after photos.

Adding call tracking or form automation ensures every inquiry is logged and followed up.

Follow-Up Systems That Convert

The most overlooked part of healthcare marketing isn’t advertising — it’s no or slow follow-up.

On average, clinics lose 30–50% of their potential appointments because they don’t follow up quickly or consistently enough with incoming leads.

Here’s how to fix that:

  • Automated emails confirming inquiries or reminding patients about next steps.
  • SMS reminders for consultations and follow-ups (patients check texts faster than email).
  • Personalized phone calls within 24 hours of a form submission.

Using an automated CRM (like HubSpot, PatientPop, or GoHighLevel) can dramatically improve conversion rates and ensure that potential patients don’t fall through the cracks.

Optimizing Ad Spend for Maximum ROI

Once leads start coming in, the goal shifts to improving efficiency. Focus your budget where it matters most:

  • Retarget website visitors who viewed key pages but didn’t book.
  • Run localized campaigns using keywords like “best cosmetic surgeon Greenville SC” or “dental implants near me.”
  • Create dedicated landing pages for each procedure with consistent messaging from ad to form.
  • Track cost-per-consultation, not just clicks — this gives you a true measure of ROI.

Measure What Matters

Don’t get lost in vanity metrics like impressions or followers. Instead, focus on:

  • Number of qualified leads generated
  • Conversion rate (click → consultation)
  • Cost per booked consultation
  • Average patient lifetime value

These metrics reveal what’s actually driving revenue — and where to adjust your strategy. These insights will show you how to grow an elective healthcare practice for the future.

Turning Clicks Into Loyal Patients

Digital marketing for elective healthcare isn’t just about visibility; it’s about building trust and reducing friction at every step of the journey. And the journey doesn’t end once you have booked that first appointment. Use your CRM to stay in touch with additional educational materials, next step reminders, financing options, patient case studies and other information that encourages patients to trust you to handle the procedure. 

When you pair a strong online presence with consistent follow-up, you create a patient experience that feels seamless — from the first search to the first visit.

Your next patient is already searching. Make sure they find you — and choose you. 

When it comes to choosing a doctor for an elective procedure, patients are in the driver’s seat. Since these procedures are not typically covered by health insurance, they have their pick of clinics and physicians. Understanding the patient journey and how you can influence it will allow you to optimize elective surgery marketing and generate a steady flow of initial appointments.

How Patients Choose an Elective Procedure Doctor

In addition to removing the element of insurance networks from the equation, the process for choosing a doctor for an elective procedure is very different from that of picking a primary care or other covered provider. With covered providers, patients have some level of comfort that the insurance company has vetted the doctor; this assurance is missing with elective procedure physicians.

Initial Research

This lack of comfort, the out-of-pocket costs, plus the fact that elective procedures are rarely urgent, means that patients will spend a significant amount of time researching their options. For example, when choosing a dermatologist for cosmetic procedures such as laser skin resurfacing, a patient might first research the procedure itself to see what is involved, and may also search “how to choose a dermatologist,” for example, to investigate important criteria. Creating educational content creation on common procedures that ranks for keywords and a robust local SEO program will be key in this initial stage of patient research.

The Online Search for a Provider

Once the patient is clear on the procedure itself, the search begins for a provider. A common search at this point is for “best plastic surgeon near me” or “best facelift near me.” In addition to organic and paid search results, many patients will look at the local search results to find a provider or clinic near to where they live. To stand out here, your practice’s Google Business Profile needs to be optimized.

Part of the Google Business Profile is your reviews. The patient’s next stage in choosing a doctor or clinic is scrutinizing online reviews, both on search engines like Google and physician sites like Healthgrades or WebMD. If a patient is looking for “the best dental implant specialist near me,” she will want to see good reviews (4.5 stars or more) and plenty of them, which is an indication of experience as well as quality. Part of your marketing plan should be systems to solicit reviews and testimonials from current and past patients. If you are in a situation where you have negative or mediocre reviews, it is imperative to correct this problem with healthcare reputation management.

Making the Shortlist: Website Strategies

At this point, patients will have narrowed down the list of potential physicians to a handful and the rest of the information that they will use to make a decision will reside on the practice’s website. This includes:

  • Before-and-after galleries
  • On-website reviews and testimonials
  • Case studies
  • A list of the doctor’s experience and credentials such as board certifications
  • A thorough and transparent listing of prices and outcomes

The Importance of Building Trust

It is important to note that, while this may seem like a very logical and analytical process, there is a lot of emotion involved in the decision process. Most elective procedures involve cosmetic appearance, which is personally important and emotionally fraught. Appearance influences not only how others view the person but also affects self-esteem and mental health. Because of this and because appearance-enhancing procedures can be involved, expensive and can go horribly wrong, building trust with the prospective patient is key.

Your online strategies and execution should lay the groundwork for building trust between the practice and the patient so that the patient books his first appointment. But trust building doesn’t end there; it needs to be a part of every patient interaction thereafter, from how your staff treats patients in the waiting room to billing.

All of this can feel overwhelming. Most medical practices have their hands full with their own scheduling, procedures and billing and don’t have the time or expertise to handle digital marketing.

Leave that to the pros at Pro Creative Marketing. We can come up with a marketing plan that will produce a steady stream of new patients. Schedule a free consultation today.