Attract More Qualified Patients With Content Marketing

Fill Your Appointment Books With Qualified Patients

We know that many private practice clinic owners struggle with their marketing, especially with knowing how you should use content marketing to attract more of your ideal patients.

It’s ok, we know as health professionals ourselves, no one taught us marketing as university… We had to learn it ourselves!

That means it’s easy for you to get caught up in the whirlwind of what the latest and best marketing strategy is right for you, it can leave you feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about the what to do next.

There is direct marketing, referral marketing, inbound & outbound marketing, social media marketing, news hacking or PR marketing and many, many more…

You’re probably wondering what type of marketing is going to be best for your clinic to increase the volume and quality of new patients coming to see you.

After working with 100’s of private practice owners and as part of our Business Academy, we help you create the structures and implement the marketing systems you need to attract more of your ideal patients.

One of the most effective long term approaches to attract more of your ideal patients is by using Content Marketing.

So, in this article we are going to outline how you can use a content marketing system to attract more of your ideal patients.

What is Content Marketing?

“Content marketing is how you communicate with your community or audience”. Chris Marr

Basically, your aim is to create, publish and distribute content that is valuable to your community so that you attract them to your clinic as a patient.

It begins with your intent to understand the needs, wants and desires of your ideal patient so deeply that you can empathise with their frustrations or challenges and then educate them about the solution.

With content marketing you’re aiming to position yourself as what Jay Abraham would call the pre-eminent, trusted advisor and authority on a given health condition or wellness topic.

If you were to ‘sell‘ your products and health services before you’ve even met someone, you would be like every most other clinic owners who are desperately trying to get the next client through the door.

By offering value to a person (prospective patient) you have not met before, you are gaining their trust and establishing a relationship so that when they need you, they’re not going anywhere else!

6 Reasons Why You Must Do Content Marketing

How often do you hear this from your patient, “I Googled it”.

If you’re like me, you probably smile and wait to hear all about what your patient found on google.. but that’s the reality of the world we live in!

So, here is the opportunity for you should be the source of information and the supplier of solutions.

Here’s why you really MUST factor in content marketing into your patient attraction system.

1. Educate & Help Your Community

   1. Help your audience/community to understand their body, health and wellbeing better so that they can make better, more informed decisions in their daily life.

2. Establish Trust & Build Relationships

   1. By delivering the valuable insights through content, you will create trust in your prospective patient because they can see and experience the knowledge you have. You will develop a relationship by being able to engage with them before enrolling them into your care.

3. Create Clinic Awareness

   1. When you are sharing your wisdom and expertise you are naturally held in high regard, you are seen as an authority because of the contribution and value you bring.

4. Get Found Online

   1. Improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so that when prospective clients search for answers to their query into google, you rank above any other health professional in the area because you are relevant.

5. Attract Your Ideal Clients

   1. When you articulate and communicate your ethos, your approach and provide insights into the methods you use, naturally you will identify and connect with people who resonate with your message.

   2. It’s best to tailor your content and language just for this demographic so that you are always attracting the ideal patients.

6. Lifetime Value and Loyalty

   1. By sharing your knowledge and helping people solve their problems you become their trusted advisor, creating loyalty to you through ongoing patient continuity and/or word of mouth referrals.

Warning: Content Marketing Requires Commitment

Doing content marketing requires the grind, the hustle, real work and any other buzz word for putting in effort.

It’s why most people don’t do it. But the ones that do, get great results!

If you want to understand some of the nuances and technical approaches to content marketing like SEO, Back Links and Keywords etc we suggest you check out Neil Patel Digital.

7 Step Content Marketing System

You’re going to have to work hard and earn the right to get your audience’s attention, and once you have got it, then you need to deliver value for them!

To ensure you and your team consistently produce high quality and frequent content, you’re going to need automate the process using systems.

You should have a set up a system for each of the 7 Steps in your Content Marketing System.

1. Capture Your Content Topics

2. Create Your Content

3. Optimise Your Content

4. Distribute Your Content

5. Track Your Content

6. Analyse Your Results

7. Take Massive Renewed Action

If you want to find out more about each of the individual steps within the content marketing system, you can read more here…

Stop Making Excuses

If you’re thinking that you can’t do this, then why are you in business?

The great Peter Drucker said, “Business is two things, Marketing and Innovation.”

You chose to be in business, so it’s time to show up and step up on both your Marketing and Innovation of products and services.

You’re probably doing the innovation part by updating your professional knowledge and skills, using new techniques and technologies… now you’ve got to do some marketing.

If you don’t have the time to do content marketing, perhaps you could:

1. Spread the workload by including this work in your team member’s role

2. Create a virtual assistant team to help with each of the steps

3. Start small and use the content you already have e.g. professional development notes, patient handouts etc

Conclusion

If you’re looking to fill your appointment books you need a thorough marketing plan.

To attract quality new patients, you’ll benefit greatly from using content marketing to connect and convert qualified patients who already know, like and trust you.

Stop using the excuse they you didn’t get taught marketing, or you don’t have time to do it…

You decided to be in business and that means you need to be able to attract, convert and retain your ideal patients as part of their health care journey.

If you’ve done this before and it didn’t work, or you not sure how to maintain your current momentum, make sure you review and update your systems to help automate the process.

Content Marketing is a great way to Grow Your Clinic. 

Publishing quality content, frequently is a real commitment to the future growth of your clinic and if you’re playing the long game, it will be very worthwhile!

If you’d like some support to implement the exact system we use to be the most prolific content creators and education source for clinic owners, then check out how we could help you as a member of our elite Business Academy.

Until Next time;
Live with Passion & Serve with Care