Many medical specialists today find themselves — and their practices — in a bit of a quandary. The world has changed quite a bit just in the past few decades. You can’t count on people finding your practice in the yellow pages, and private practices often have contracts or other agreements that cause them to refer patients directly to specific doctors, even if your practice is a viable option.
Before ever seeing a specialist, most patients will go out on the Web looking for information related to their condition. Self-diagnosis and self-treatment are both dangerous. You want people to find good information and sound advice when they go searching, right? You also want local patients to be able to find you easily with a Google search. The one content strategy that revolves around both of those things is blogging and this is why, in a nutshell, your practice needs one.
Of course, I committed a copywriting faux pas with that last statement — providing the answer to the title’s question in the first couple paragraphs. For me, though, there are many more reasons, all of which revolve around improving SEO, helping people find your content, and, ultimately, contact your practice. Let’s take a look at just a few.
Why Keep a Blog in the First Place?
Let’s answer this particular question first…
The twofold purpose of a blog is to entertain and educate. The former must take precedence in the cutthroat arena of content discovery. Your content has to have a unique voice and message. It has to be able to attract new readers. Responsible copy can accomplish this in a number of ways.
First, good blog content is fully optimized for SEO. That means every word is carefully placed, as are all other content elements. Blog SEO is about much more than just keywords, which we will examine momentarily. It’s about adding elements like meta descriptions and image tags that further direct the right traffic to your blog post.
Next, good-quality blog copy communicates competence. This is a key area where your practice can gain an advantage. Imagine what could — and would — happen if your blog was optimized for local traffic and local patients saw your practice first in a Google search. This is your ultimate goal with blogging: being Google’s number 1 pick when people search for things related to your medical specialty.
Lastly (for the purposes of this particular brainstorm), blog content is versatile and adaptable. Link to your blog from social media, email, and more. Print the URL on your business cards and other promotional materials. Think online and offline promotion, and don’t neglect either. Those are all the general reasons, and all of them are good ones. Now, let’s look at few that are specific to your blogging efforts:
1. Many Patients Feel Underinformed
Patients like to know that they have resources that can answer common questions about the conditions your practice manages. Ditch the idea of an impersonal brochure or flier being “promotional” and start a blog. Your own literature can only be found inside your practice. You need to get them in the door first.
The best way there is, from a marketing standpoint, to hold the door open is to be constantly delivering new content. A blog presents a prime opportunity to do just that. The more consistent you are with content delivery, the more your readers will feel informed about you, your practice, and how you manage care.
2. Educated Patients Are Happier
The ability to refer patients to blog content for answers to common questions will almost always lead to them browsing other posts, too. The longer they stay, the better your metrics look in SEO terms. Therefore, it is in your best interest to present a blog that informs but also speaks directly to the patient.
Don’t make a blog geared toward patients too technical. Don’t promote self-diagnosis or self-treatment. Do provide links to outside resources and a call to action to contact your office with any questions or concerns that arise from reading your blog.
3. Your Practice Will Stand Out
There are so few practices actually doing this, there is a better than good chance that your practice could soar quickly in local page rankings if you simply start and maintain a blog. Use other marketing tools to promote your blog, like email and social media — especially social media.
Doing It Right
I’ll leave you with a few words of advice on how to help your blog become successful. These rules apply to all blogging efforts, not just medical.
Publish on a Regular Schedule: Consistent updates help with page rankings and build trust with your audience.
Use Email and Social Media: As mentioned above, these two marketing tools will get you the furthest in growing a readership and, ultimately, finding new patients for your practice.
Curate Relevant Content: Curated content is a great element for delivering timely information relevant to the subject of the blog.
Don’t Neglect Unique Content: It is easy to fall into the content curation vortex. Don’t. Unique content is what boosts rankings and makes your content more visible in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Use Clear, Simple, Concise Calls to Action: Always give your reader something to do with the information in the post. Decide how you want them to respond, then tell them to.
If, after reading all this, you feel the need for a little help getting things moving, or if you just want a competent outside team to manage your content needs, contact BeezContent. We are here to help meet all your medical blogging and medical copywriting needs. Find out today how you can elevate your blog to a marketing tool that helps draw in new patients and maintain good relations with current ones.
