Plastic Surgery Event Planning to Offset Seasonal Cash Flow Issues

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Similar to every industry, the plastic and cosmetic surgery industry experiences an ebb and flow each year. Practices typically see their “ebb” or decline in new patient acquisition and overall revenue in the third and fourth quarters.

Google Trends is used as a reference point for the average search volume in a given market and industry. The Google tool illustrates a decrease in search volume, correlating to the decline in patient volume and revenue that most plastic surgery practices experience from July through December each year.

Figure 1: Cosmetic Surgery Marketing Trends

Figure 1 represents the average search volume for cosmetic surgery-related terms in the United States—from January 2012 through December 2016. Note the start of the recurring downward trend each year in July; the market experiences a continuous decrease in the search interest through December each year.*

The seasonal pattern, displayed in Figure 1, is evident in the lack of revenue generated during these months. There is a significant drop in the amount of high profit-margin, invasive procedures being purchased at this time. Consequently, plastic surgery practices experience an imbalance in cash flow and begin to scramble to execute last-minute marketing initiatives.

Having a plan in place for the seasonal downtime is key. There are multiple ways to increase plastic and cosmetic surgery revenue during this time, but our objective data has shown that events are one of the best methods of boosting practice revenue.

Plastic Surgery Promotion & Event Ideas

Events are a great way to attract new patients and to retain existing ones. They help to enlighten your patients about you, your practice and your brand. Events also help to provide prospective patients with information on the invasive and non-invasive procedures your practice offers. Plastic surgery practices should consider running quarterly events, especially during Q3 and Q4.

Hosting events is a proven method for increasing revenue and maximizing profits for your plastic surgery practice. Offering cosmetic surgery promotions at these events will drive more revenue to the practice to help balance the cash flow during slow times. But in order to drive more sales and revenue during the downtime, you must have a pre-planned and integrated marketing strategy.

Deciding to host an event only two weeks before the day of the event will not benefit the practice. This leaves your staff little to no time to properly plan and execute the most effective marketing strategy for the event. Your staff will not have time to prepare for, promote or execute the event successfully, and your patients and their friends will be less inclined to attend.

Planning the event ahead of time will allow you the opportunity to fully promote the event and garner the most attendees. Similarly, having an integrated marketing approach will allow you to advertise your event via the website, the office, email and social media. This will maximize your potential reach and help you to obtain more attendees, increasing the revenue you will make from the event.

Download our Event Planning Infographic here!

*There are two abnormal spikes in search volume during this timeframe; they are anomalies because they are caused by random occurrences in the media (i.e. Joan Rivers’ death in September 2014).