Don’t Just Build A Website, Build A Community

When it comes to advertising for cosmetic surgeons, you certainly can build a website for your practice, but why not go one step further and build a community instead? Community websites are far more effective than those offering nothing but a direct sales pitch. Rather than simply throwing your services at your visitors and expecting them to comply, you can bring your visitors together and get them to interact with each other, with you and with your website.

From its onset, the Internet has quickly become another marketing medium. Internet users have adjusted to this and have become wise to, and often wary of, overt advertising on the Internet. They tend to look past advertisements like banner ads and instead look for pertinent, valuable information. Because of this, it can be very beneficial for you to make your website less of an overt advertisement and more of an online community catering to those interested in plastic surgery. This community feel will keep your visitors interested and coming back and ultimately increase your business.

While building a community-type website can be very involved, it’s important to remember that you needn’t do it all in a day. In fact, you can add elements that lend that community feel a little at a time. Your traffic will gradually increase with each new element that you add. The following are great extras that you can add to your site to give it that all-important community feel:

• Blog. Blogs, which are short for Web Logs, are basically online journals with daily updates. You can add a blog to your website, simply writing four or five sentences a day on anything related to plastic surgery. Both visitors and search engines love blogs.
• Helpful Tips. When it comes to advertising for cosmetic surgeons, there are a multitude of helpful tips that you can add to your website. These could be tips on finding a qualified surgeon, preparing for surgery, dealing with complications, recovery, and so on.
• Articles. You can write plastic surgery related articles yourself or find them on the Internet.
• Forums/Discussion Boards. Forums and discussion boards really add a community feel. They’re a great way for visitors to your site to connect with others like them. They’re also a great way for you to connect with your potential patients.
• Surveys/Polls. You can add a short survey or poll to your site. For instance, one week you might poll your visitors asking how many have considered a particular procedure, rhinoplasty for instance, and display the results of the poll.