We met a plastic surgeon last week, he has over 18 years of experience and board-certified. His surgical results are beautiful (when patients appear), but his waiting room was empty. Meanwhile, the new med spa three blocks away is booked six months out. The plastic surgeon expressed he’s frustrated because he thinks his reputation should be enough.
Of course, we let him know why he’s wrong.
Inside the medical industry, having a “great reputation” is a baseline, but not a growth strategy. If you are the best-kept secret in your city, you are failing your business.
Many surgeons view marketing as something only “low-quality” practices do or even something unnecessary. This is an ego trap, it ignores how patients actually find doctors today.
Think about it this way: reputation is what people say about you when you are in the room, marketing is what Google says about you when you are asleep.
If a potential patient hears your name at a dinner party, the first thing they do is grab their phone and search for your name, and if they find a website from 2008 or a Google profile with three reviews, your reputation dies. Trust is verified online before the first consultation even happens.
The “New Tech” clinics are winning because they understand digital authority. They might have half your experience, but they have ten times your visibility.
Numbers don’t lie. 80% of patients start their path with a search query. Reputation is a pillar of your brand, but it is not the foundation. You need a foundation of local search presence so people can actually find your skill.
If you aren’t in the top three results on the map, you don’t have a reputation in the eyes of the internet. You are invisible.
3 Solutions to Fix the Gap
First, automate your social proof. Don’t just hope patients leave reviews. Use a CRM to ask them. Every happy patient should become a digital signal that search engines can read. This turns your skill into data.
Second, create content that actually educates. Stop posting generic “Happy Monday” photos. They are useless. Write about the clinical questions patients ask in your consultation room. Explain the recovery time for a facelift. Describe the sensation of a laser treatment. This builds what search engines call E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Third, dominate the Local Map Pack. This requires clean data, meaning your name, address, and phone number must be identical everywhere online. If Google gets confused about your location, it hides you.
We hear the objections every day. “Marketing might make me look cheap” No. Bad marketing looks cheap. High-authority, educational marketing makes you look like the only logical choice.
Others say their high-net-worth patients don’t use Google. That is a myth. Wealthy patients value their time more than anyone else. They use their phones to verify every professional they hire. If you have a poor digital footprint, they will assume you are behind the times.
Your skill is the product. Your marketing is the bridge. If the bridge is broken, nobody sees the product.
Stop wishing for more referrals. Start controlling the narrative. You have spent years building your expertise. It is time to make sure the world can actually see it.
Schedule a Free Consultation and take your practice seriously. Don’t be the best doctor that nobody knows.
