Health and medicine have been hot topics of discussion since forever, and the Internet has only expanded the conversation.
To date, there are over 40,000 websites related to health and wellness, over 900 medical conditions included in Google health searches, and nearly half the American population say they google their symptoms before visiting the doctor.
Because of this, it’s important for doctors to utilize modern content marketing strategies—like providing visitors to your website with factual, relevant content in the form of blogs, articles, web copy, and social media posts. It’s good for business, builds trust with patients, and helps combat all the misinformation floating around the Internet. Here are four tips to help medical professionals beef up their content.
1: Blog More
Blogs are a fantastic way to discuss popular topics, give advice, and dispel myths. Plus, it can be extremely valuable to your local patient population as it provides information from a familiar source. It also allows you to build additional trust as a medical professional in your community.
Some simple example topics include:
- The benefits of different types of therapy
- Tips for maintaining mental wellness
- Recognizing the signs of anxiety, stress, or depression
- Myths about the flu vaccine
- Home treatment options for colds
- The Medical Issue du Jour (Ebola, Zika, West Nile, etc)
Whether you’re a GP, counselor, or specialist, you ought to have plenty of infomation to pull from based on your day to day activities. Any fact, tip, or bit of helpful information you can form 4-5 paragraphs around, blog about it.
And keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be complex, or even very lenghty. Just provide the information peopel want to know. Here’s a good example from one of our clients.
2: Provide a FAQ on Your Website
Whenever we build a website for a medical practice, we like to always try and include an FAQ page. In part, this helps address administrative questions, such as how to schedule an appointment, insurance concerns, etc., like with did with this client.
However, the FAQ page can also be a great way to provide in-depth answers to some of the more basic, common medical questions doctors may hear on a day-to-day basis. Consider answering questions such as:
- What are the symptoms of (flu, mono, strep, etc)?
- Is it safe to take (x) medicine when I’m breastfeeding?
- How do I know if I, or my children, need counseling?
- Is it safe to take ibuprofen every day?
If you have trouble narrowing down your FAQs, see what medical questions people asked Google last year.
3: Make Sure Your Website Includes All Relevant Information
Strange as it sounds, we’ve come across plenty of medical practices that don’t give individual attention to each of their services, and that’s a mistake.
One of the simplest and most effective, content strategies you can employ is having a detailed page on your site for each of your services.
Regardless of your specialty, this is important information that will provide a lot of value to potential patients.
4: Post Daily on Social Media
We always hear about the importance of patient/doctor communication inside the office, but what about outside?
If nothing else, take advantage of Facebook and stay connected with your local community. People take to social media every day to discuss their health concerns, prescriptions, progress, and more. If you don’t believe me, check out these stats on social media and health care.
Through social media, you can offer daily advice on healthy living, answer questions directly, link to the blogs and information on your website, and promote factual, health related content. Facebook is also a great place to advertise your practice to potential patients.
Anything to add to this blog? Let us know in the comments. Or if you have any additional questions, shoot us an email.
