Why Private Practice Doctors Need Content Marketing
The American Medical Association reports that 2020 was the first year in which less than half (49.1 percent) of patient care physicians worked in a private practice. Rising overhead costs and declining reimbursement rates are pushing more physicians into large network employment.
These hospital systems and physicians groups are equipped with in-house business managers and marketing experts that most private practices can’t themselves hire full-time or effectively DIY.
Private practice isn’t dying, but it is evolving. The future of private practice relies heavily on its ability to effectively market to patients in an increasingly competitive environment. And in healthcare, content marketing is king.
CONTENT IS KING
Content marketing is a strategic approach to marketing that focuses on educating, informing, or entertaining a target audience in order to attract them. It includes creating content like articles, blogs, social media content, informative web pages, e-books, case studies, videos, podcasts - even GIFs.
For private physician practices, content marketing plays a leading role in increasing awareness of the practice, establishing authority on a certain topic, and building trust with patients by showcasing physicians’ expertise.
CONSUMER DATA SHOWS THAT 70% OF CONSUMERS feel closer TO A COMPANY AS A RESULT OF CONTENT MARKETING, AND 82% OF CONSUMERS feel more positively ABOUT A COMPANY AFTER READING custom content.
The key to successful content marketing is providing value. What questions are your patients asking? What are they confused about? What do they need to know? In short: create content that people want to consume - not simple advertisements they’ll ignore.
ADVANTAGES OF CONTENT MARKETING
Builds Awareness of Your Practice. Traditional advertising and marketing methods simply don’t cut it anymore. If you want to get your practice name in front of patients, you have to create content. Just check out this Forbes article, “15 Go-To Tactics to Expand Brand Awareness.” Eight of the ten suggestions fall under content marketing.
Establishes Trust, and therefore Loyalty. When patients begin to view you as the top expert on the topics they’re researching, they’ll trust you with their health. When patients trust and like you, they are inclined to stay.
Increases Web Traffic. When you provide relevant and valuable content on other platforms, you can reach patients where they already are and bring them back to your website.
All of these advantages lead to the most important benefit of all: increased sales (or patient traffic, in the case of private practice).
PITFALLS OF CONTENT MARKETING
Developing content of true value can be time-consuming. It involves research into consumer trends and questions, actual creation of the content (writing, designing, editing), and sometimes ongoing management of that content once it’s published (think: social media management). Plus, it can take time to build your reputation and truly connect with your ideal audience.
If there’s one thing physicians are short on, it’s time. That’s why it’s incredibly important to work with a content creator who is familiar with health concepts, ethical marketing practices, and patient trends, to limit hand-holding and free up your time for actual patients.
It’s also important to remember that while content marketing is not an overnight fix to increasing patient traffic, it will provide long-lasting and consistent results. Once it’s gained momentum, there’s little opportunity to slow it down. Quick fixes (like ads), on the other hand, produce equally short-lasting solutions.
If you begin building your content marketing strategy today, you can benefit for years to come.
