A happy patient starts with finding the right doctor.

A happy patient starts with finding the right doctor.

It seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day already in your career as a medical professional. You spend your day seeing patients, writing reports, and following up with patients in addition to dedicating time to research and continuing education. With so little time to devote to online marketing efforts, you just write what you can and hope for the best. It isn’t until your publications fail to bring in new patients that you stop to consider the possibility of changing your approach.

Identifying Patient Pain Points
People search for information on the Internet because they have a problem that is in need of a solution. Marketing teams refer to this as the pain point. For example, your future patient may be interested in cosmetic surgery after an accident or he has symptoms that worry him. You need to present yourself as having the solution. When the patient finds your blog or website, he or she also needs to feel that you empathize with the situation and can actually help. Nothing turns people off faster than advertising hype that is long on promises and short on delivery.

The Importance of Quality Content
A common mistake that busy medical professionals make is adding content to their website that doesn’t benefit the visitor in any way. These doctors know they need to have an Internet presence, but they often place content without having developed a strategy. To pique the interest of prospective patients and earn high search engine rankings, it’s essential to publish quality content with well-placed keywords. However, it’s even more important to avoid stuffing the content full of keywords that detract from its overall message. When Google considers quality, it looks at the usefulness of the content from a website visitor’s perspective. It also needs to be completely original.

One thing that is important to remember as a doctor or other medical professional is to avoid using jargon and abbreviations. Although common to you, these terms are likely unfamiliar to your website readers. Always spell things out and aim to write at about an eighth-grade level unless you know that your patient base is highly educated. The best way to ensure that you create useful and high quality content is to write to inform. You can always add in a soft sell later.

Provide Actionable Steps
Most people are impatient and have short attention spans. They want a solution to their problem right now, even if it’s a complex medical issue. While you obviously can’t provide that in one short website visit, you can offer just enough that the person who landed at your website will contact you to learn more. Whether in the form of a Frequently Asked Questions page, live chat, or another format, make sure the response is useful while remaining just vague enough to encourage follow-up.

As an example, assume that you offer medically supervised weight loss plans. Rather than provide detailed individual answers to frequently asked questions, answer just enough to make people curious and then provide an action step. This could be registering for a free information session with other people interested in the program, contacting your office to schedule an appointment, or another action that you consider a successful conversion.

Prove You’re Better than the Competition
Even when insurance companies limit which doctors they can see, today’s healthcare consumer is a savvy one. They ask questions and demand proof of results before scheduling the first appointment. That’s why your online marketing content should include testimonials from other patients in addition to statistics and credentials that demonstrate your expertise. You need to overcome a prospective patient’s objections long before you meet him or her for the first time. While you don’t need to include these details on everything you publish, a visitor to your website should be able to spot them within the first minute.

Find a Medical Writer on Content Runner
Perhaps you have identified some key phrases and ideas you would like to publish to your blog or website but simply don’t have the time to go beyond that. Content Runner can help. We encourage you to browse our writer directory to find someone who has the experience you need. When looking at the directory as a whole, you will notice several categories listed under each writer. Next to that is a number indicating how many articles he or she has successfully completed in that category.

You can contact the writers with a high number listed by the Medical category to inquire about writing for you or click on the writer’s user name to view the entire profile. You are free to ask for any information you would like, including writing samples and additional contact information. At Content Runner, we encourage clients and writers to form close working relationships in order to ensure that you receive the top-notch medical copy you need and expect.