What does it take to get a return on your investment in RealSelf? In this series, we’ll walk you through the approaches your peers have taken in order to get peak performance from their profiles.
Advisor collaboration · Marketing during COVID · Procedure specialization-oriented · Focus on photos |
Dr. Goretti Taghva
Dr. Goretti Taghva plays to her strengths.
Instagram isn’t really her thing, so she doesn’t force it, instead focusing on RealSelf to engage potential patients through procedure-focused profile content.
She thinks investing in her niche—specifically facial plastic surgery for Asian clientele—is more fruitful than competing with plastic surgeons outside of her top procedures, so that’s where she focuses her time and attention.
This thoughtful and self-aware approach helped Dr. Taghva achieve success on RealSelf, including doubling her profile views in the last six months from around 1,500 in February to 3,000 in July. Dr. Taghva relied heavily on RealSelf to build her practice early on. Establishing a strong clientele from that foundation made word-of-mouth a viable and strong referral source, and RealSelf continues to be a key engine for practice growth alongside it.
RealSelf Profile By the Numbers
- Specialty: Board Certified Plastic Surgeon
- Years in practice: 8
- Joined RealSelf: 4 years
- Location: Newport Beach, CA
- Patient reviews: 134
- Star rating: 4.9
- B&A photos: 559
- Answers: 364
Dr. Taghva’s Marketing Philosophy: BREAK FROM THE PACK
Dr. Taghva embraced RealSelf early on in her career as a way to feature her own work, results and expertise while part of a larger practice. She did this successfully by being mindful of her strengths and using them to inform her approach to promoting her work.
Doubling down on what works. The cornerstones of Dr. Taghva’s approach to building clientele were RealSelf and word-of-mouth, a fact she validates for herself with results tracking from MyMedLeads. While many of her peers put their effort into building their presence on Instagram, Dr. Taghva knew this approach didn’t appeal to her sensibilities, and she made the decisive move to instead fine-tune what worked for her: building profile content on RealSelf.
Filling a void. Dr. Taghva knows consumers seek doctors with expertise in their procedure of choice. Breast augmentations and mommy makeovers are “such competitive spaces, I wanted to focus on where I could stand out,” she said. Instead of competing with peers in those procedures, she built her reputation and practice around facial plastic surgery for clientele of Asian descent. “They feel more comfortable going to someone who is familiar with thicker skin on the nose or eyelids, for example. Someone who looks more like them.”
Proof patients can see. Dr. Taghva’s profile boasts an impressive portfolio of before-and-after photos numbering 550-plus and counting. Dr. Taghva works with her RealSelf Advocate to keep her photo content fresh.
Those photos were key for helping her to establish a reputation separate from other surgeons at her practice earlier in her career. “I honestly think it jump-started my practice,” she said, adding: “None of the other platforms, like Yelp or Google, really allow me to do that.”
One Big Idea: Take a Day
Like many of her peers, Dr. Taghva has been embracing virtual consultations in the wake of COVID-19. She indicates on her profile that she accepts virtual consults and keeps her COVID-19 banner up to date so that potential patients know how to begin the process with her practice.
Some doctors have taken a more maximalist approach to scheduling virtual consultations. Dr. Taghva found it worked better with the flow of her practice to reserve one day each week to dedicate to them, and advises this approach if doctors are concerned about the workflow management aspect of adding virtual consults.
“I have surgeries and I have to see patients in the office. It was disruptive to put them all throughout the week,” she said. “Now, we do them on Thursdays,” making it easier for Dr. Taghva to control the cadence of her week.
One Crisp Takeaway
Adopt—and adapt—marketing and practice development best practices in ways that are sustainable for you and your practice, and that compliment your strengths and personality. From marketing channels to the very procedures she performs, Dr. Taghva is strategically choosy about where she focuses time and effort.
