5 Before and After Photo Structures That Don’t Suck

You’ve heard time and time (and time) again how critically important before and after photos are to your practice. At this point, you could probably go your entire life without hearing another marketer tell you that your entire digital marketing strategy rests on your ability to produce a high-quality before and after gallery.

You’d probably rather take a scalpel to your own eardrums than hear someone tell you to review must-know strategies for your before and after photos again.

I’d also be willing to bet you’d prefer to take a shot of broadband light at max power to the eyes than read another LinkedIn post about how you can set up an easy before and after studio at your practice.

So, who the hell knows what is going to happen when I tell you that the average before and after photo sucks, and that you have to read this article for ideas on how to display your gallery in a way that stands out to your audience. 

Look, I don’t really want to talk about this anymore either, but the data is the data, and the data says most medical professionals still have a lot of work to do on their before and after galleries. So, here we are: 5 before and after structures that don’t suck (and will help you convert more patients). 

1. The Slider

Other than the static before and after side-by-sides that typically dominate the internet, simple image sliders are probably the most popular way to spice up a gallery. But, a lot of time, these sliders can still feel stagnant and sterile. 78

A good way to make the slider work harder for you is to throw a simple and easy social media twist on it. Take a look at this one from Skin By BN, an esthetician out of Midwest City, OK:  

Your images don’t need to live solely on your website; don’t be afraid to invest some time into getting native aspect ratios and creating captions that speak to your audience. It’s a great way to open up a dialogue with your potential patients and connect with them beyond purely educational or informational posts.

2. The Triple Slider

Do you know what’s better than one slider? That’s right, three sliders. Three sliders that, with the power of magic (a.k.a. web development), slide simultaneously to provide the audience with a full visual experience. 

This example comes from Park Cities Cosmetic Surgery. Like any slider graphic, it is important to ensure that all angles, lighting, and camera settings are uniform throughout the photos. Otherwise, you will lose much of the cohesion that makes this approach feel like magic. 

The thing here is that it doesn’t need to be three. It can be as many images at once as the scenario calls for. If you want to show off a full Mommy Makeover, nothing wrong with doing four, five, or even six to get your point across. 

3. The Social Media Pan

You’ve probably seen some iteration of this before and after, even if it isn’t for the medical field. A barber shows off his high fade on an otherwise doomed client, a home renovation turns a dark space into an amazing breakfast nook, or a car detailer moves a camera around a freshly cleaned carpet after vacuuming up 20 years of build-up — whatever your social media algorithm looks like, there is some iteration of this kind of before and after.

It’s popular for a reason, so even though you won’t be breaking any new ground with this strategy, you will still be outperforming those who aren’t moving past the simple side-by-side approach. Plus, these give you a chance to add a little educational value via audio snippets or intriguing captions. You know, just have fun with it. 

4. The Timeline

This is probably one of the most involved methods you could undertake, but the end result is a spectacular tool for your patients and potential patients. 

Many treatments require multiple sessions, and for many of these more noninvasive options, the caveat is that results take time to fully develop. You can tell the patient what that timeline looks like all you want throughout your content, but a scrollable timeline of results from a real patient showing monthly improvements over the course of a year will be a much more persuasive experience. 

Here is an example from Grossman Capraro Plastic Surgery that ranks very highly on Google Images:

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This will require some involved planning on your end and a patient who is willing to commit to the process, but it might also be a good opportunity to partner with an influencer in the space who might be a little easier to lock down for long-term commitments. 

5. The Patient Journey

We don’t typically think of patient journeys as a place to show off before-and-after photos, but we should. Let’s consider the goal of before-and-after photos: to provide potential patients with real examples of other people that they can connect with. 

This goes hand in hand with patient journeys. In fact, by providing a more relatable and visceral story for your audience to get lost in, the before and after results you provide will mean even more since there is now a person and narrative behind the image. 

When you do this, it doesn’t matter if you provide a simple side-by-side since the goal of the before-and-after is no longer to attract attention but to supplement a moving story with tangible results. 

Check out this patient journey from California Veins Specialists about Dylan Zeigler, who gets her entire story told before finally showing the before and after results.

Don’t Be Afraid to Get Creative

I know that before and after photos feel like a chore, but if you are willing to expend any energy at all toward improving your digital marketing footprint and using the internet to earn more patients, your time and effort will not be wasted if you apply it toward your before and after program. 

If you need help, you can check out any of those links we snuck in above, or you can always reach out to us directly. We are here to help guide you through all things digital and get you on the right track.