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Grow Your Medical Practice with Help from a Healthcare Copywriter

Marketing for Physicians, Dentists, Dermatologists and Other Medical Practitioners

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Grow Your Medical Practice (summary)

  1. Start with a quality website that creates trust.
  2. Explain how you can solve the patient’s problem.
  3. Fill your website with rich, engaging content.
  4. Use your About Us page to forge a connection.
  5. Include patient testimonials to your expertise.
  6. Add landing pages to target specific niches.
  7. Optimize your content for search engines (SEO).
  8. Design your site for mobile, adjusts to any device.
  9. Register with Google My Business for local visibility.
  10. Encourage your patients to post online reviews.
medical practice marketing

Transform your medical practice into a growth business using proven marketing techniques.

Seeking a skilled, experienced healthcare copywriter? We can help.

If you’re in a healthcare or wellness-related business, your company’s focus is on how to provide the highest quality care. Helping people get better and stay healthy is an admirable mission. But in today’s highly competitive healthcare market, is providing good care enough to grow your practice?

Probably not.  You must be actively marketing. Otherwise you risk missing out on attracting new patients because people don’t know you exist or aren’t aware of the full range of health services you provide.

“Your hospital, clinic, office or practice exists first on your potential patients’ phones, tablets and desktops before it exists as a brick-and-mortar location,” according to OneUpWeb in their Healthcare Marketing Manual.

Even in today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment, a provider’s success is largely dependent on patients choosing to see you when they need care. More and more often, that search for a doctor, clinic or medical practice begins online. Patients shop for medical providers in much the same way they shop for anything else. They start with a Google search.

healthcare services

People shop online for healthcare just as they do for other products and services. Make sure they can find you.

You want to be sure prospective new patients find you online and like what they see. Use healthcare digital marketing and the services of healthcare copywriters to get in front of the consumer when they’re at the point of decision!

Increasing Competition in Healthcare

Today’s healthcare market has an ever-increasing number of players.  More doctors, more dentists, more medical practices and more alternative health providers — the list goes on — resulting in intense competition to attract patients. Consider these examples:

  • Urgent care facilities compete with family doctors.
  • Surgical centers compete with hospitals.
  • Specialists compete with general practitioners.
  • Rehab centers compete with home nurses and therapists.
  • Telemedicine options and other healthtech solutions are gaining acceptance.
  • The medical tourism industry abroad is growing fast.
  • And countless medical arenas overlap.

Healthcare businesses like physician practices and hospitals face a new reality: yesterday’s patient is not necessarily tomorrow’s patient.

healthcare marketing

Marketing becomes a necessity for healthcare providers facing increased competition.

Seeking an experienced healthcare copywriter? Get a free quote on your project.

Consumers Get Picky

Today’s consumers are taking a more active role in their health and wellness decisions. They know they have choices, and they do their homework. They select their doctors with care. And they don’t hesitate to move their business to another provider if they’re not satisfied.

So what does that mean to physicians? To compete, you must promote.

As a healthcare provider, while retaining existing customers is important, you must also continually be marketing your practice to attract a steady stream of new patients. You can’t sit back and wait for patients to find you. And referrals are no longer enough.

Like any business, you must actively promote your brand if you are to grow. You need visibility, so that when someone has a need, your practice is the one they choose.

attract patients to your medical practice

In today’s highly competitive healthcare industry, marketing is a necessity to attract patients to any medical practice, whether you’re a general practitioner, specialist or alternative health provider.

Start with a Professional Website

Every business in the medical arena needs a high quality website, professionally written by a copywriter who understands the medical industry, that builds trust:

A website crafted by a professional copywriter and web designer that reflects the quality of your healthcare practice will give you credibility in the eyes of prospective clients.

branding for healthcare practices

Today’s healthcare practices, like so many businesses, must create their brand. That image is critical to attracting new patients and keeping existing patients loyal.

Your medical website should be one of your primary marketing tools.  Use it to accomplish these objectives:

  • Build your healthcare brand
  • Enhance your reputation
  • Improve local awareness
  • Increase patient trust
  • Gain patient loyalty
  • Grow patient base and revenue

Drive Patient Acquisition by Being a Solution

When people search the web, they’re seeking a solution to a problem. To be that solution, your website copy needs to tell the world what you do and how you’re uniquely qualified to offer that service.

Additionally, a well-written website for your healthcare practice should differentiate you from the competition. In other words, provide information that proves you’re the best solution.

By explaining what you do in detail, you’ll attract patients who are a good fit for your practice. And you’ll also make your current patients aware of the full range of your capabilities.

well-written website

A well-written website is a necessity for medical practices. It helps create visibility, establish credibility and build trust.

Healthcare Consumers Do Their Research

Before visiting a doctor, today’s healthcare consumers do their homework. They research their symptoms and treatment options after visiting a doctor as well.

They see healthcare as a collaboration between themselves and their doctors. They take responsibility for their health and the decisions that affect it. The doctor no longer has the only say on treatment, hospitals, specialists and medications.

Need help writing your website or blog? Get a quote.

healthcare consumers

Today’s healthcare consumers are more savvy than in the past. They don’t hesitate to Google their symptoms and research treatments and providers.

According to Pew Research:

  • One in three American adults have gone online to figure out a medical condition.
  • 72% of Internet users say they looked online for health information within the past year.
  • 47% of Internet users search for information about doctors or other health professionals.
  • 38% of Internet users search for information about hospitals and other medical facilities.
  • The most commonly researched topics are specific diseases or conditions; treatments or procedures; and doctors or other health professionals.

According to Think with Google’s The Digital Journey to Wellness: Hospital Selection:

  • 77% of patients use search engines prior to booking appointments.
  • 44% of patients who research hospitals schedule an appointment.
  • 26% of patients look at consumer-generated reviews

What these statistics show is that as a physician or dentist, you need to have a quality online presence with a website written by a professional healthcare copywriter in order to attract new patients and grow your practice.

SEO Is Critical for Medical Websites

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical if you want people to find your healthcare website. Let’s say you’re a family medicine practitioner in Orlando, Florida. If someone searches Google for a family medicine doctor in Orlando, ideally you want your website to come up on page 1 because, let’s face it, most people don’t bother going beyond page 1 or 2.

A medical copywriter knows what factors Google and other search engines consider when determining the rank for a medical practice’s website.

SEO for medical websites

SEO helps your medical website gain ranking on Google, which can drive traffic to your website and new patients to your practice.

You can get on that first or second page with the right content. And whether you’re a cardiologist, dermatologist, pediatrician or urologist, that’s the type of free advertising that can deliver a steady stream of new patients and increased revenue.

Seeking an experienced healthcare copywriter? Request a quote on your project.

What Google Medic Update Means to Your SEO Efforts

In 2018 Google released a broad core algorithm update designed to improve the quality of its results. This is not an unusual occurrence, as Google has had many prior broad core algorithm updates. But this particular one, called the “Google Medic Update” for reasons you’ll soon understand, has special significance for healthcare practices.

Medical and healthcare websites took an immediate hit as Google Medic updates began. Many previously high-ranked websites dropped significantly in the rankings.

What’s clear is that Google wants healthcare-related websites to prove their trustworthiness. And that’s become even more apparent with more recent Google updates in 2021 and 2022. Medical information — including personal development and mental health advice — should come from reputable websites/companies, and the content should be created with a high level of expertise and authority.

In 2022, Digital Scholar wrote about the Google Medic Algorithm Update, stating that Google clearly wants healthcare providers to assert their expertise, authority and trustworthiness.

Google Medic Update

The Google Medic Update means the content on your healthcare website must be highly detailed and credible.

So what can you do to enhance that credibility and show Google that your website, and the people behind that website, are authorities in their field? Try some of these ideas or work with a professional copywriter to:

  1. Bolster your healthcare company’s about page and company bios of your individual practitioners to include details on credentials and experience.
  2. Add more client reviews and testimonials for your healthcare practice. Encourage patients to post reviews across the web, on sites such as Google, Yelp, WebMD, Vitals, HealthGrades, RateMDs, Angie’s List, Wellness, RealPatientRatings and LinkedIn.
  3. Increase your company’s authority on other online platforms besides your healthcare website, such as Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Traditional marketing matters, but in healthcare, digital marketing fueled with professional healthcare copywriting is critical to establishing and maintaining your practice’s good name.
  4. Add your practice’s contact information on every page and make sure your Contact Us page isn’t just a form, but rather includes your phone, email, physical address, etc.
  5. Seek out favorable press coverage in reputable outlets such as medical blogs and get your physicians bylined and quoted in other high-authority, health-related publications.

If your healthcare website is used to sell nutritional supplements, medical devices, medical tourism, home healthcare services or other health-based products or services, be sure to include plenty of relevant information that answer visitors’ questions and support the legitimacy of what you’re offering. Product reviews and discussions on your website or social media postings can also help to improve your credibility in the eyes of Google.

health care agency

A big part of marketing health care services is using language and photos that create trust.

With regard to the Medic update, “Google’s advice probably is still the best advice on how to do better: build a site that people want to visit. A site that matches people’s search queries and their search intent, and you’ll do just fine,” according to Yoast SEO.

Stay Current

Your healthcare website and marketing materials need to be kept current. Change out anything that seems dated. To go even further, speak to trends happening in the industry.

healthcare providers

Today’s patients seek the best value when choosing healthcare providers, a message you’ll want to keep in mind for marketing.

As someone in healthcare, no doubt you’ve heard of the emphasis being placed on value. Value-based healthcare is a payment model that rewards healthcare providers for providing quality care to patients.

Under this approach, providers seek to achieve the Triple Aim of:

  1. Providing better care for patients
  2. Improving health for populations
  3. Achieving these objectives at a lower cost

That value angle needs to be at the core of any marketing and copywriting you do.

Mobile Optimization Is a Necessity

Make your website mobile-friendly. Consumers now spend more than five hours a day on their smartphones.

Approximately 83% of people in the US are mobile internet users in 2022.

52.2% of the total website traffic comes from mobile phones in 2022.

Get the picture? If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re going to lose prospects who can’t view your site correctly. And to add insult to injury, Google will also give you a lower ranking on the search engine.  It doesn’t want to send searchers to a site that is problematic.

mobile-friendly medical websites

Because so many people navigate the web on their Smartphone, your medical website must be mobile friendly.

Quality Content for Your Healthcare Website

Populate your medical practice’s website with rich, engaging content written by a healthcare copywriter. If your site hasn’t been updated in the past few years, it may have old, inaccurate information and a design that shows its age. Today’s consumers won’t be fooled, and they won’t contact you if your website lacks the information they need to make important healthcare decisions. They’ll just go elsewhere.

Post informative, well-written medical copy that positions you as an authority and also helps you stand out. And, as mentioned earlier, following that advice will also help your site in the eyes of Google’s recent Medic Update.

If you’re selling medical tourism, the quality of your website is even more critical. It’s likely the only way that patients will find you. Even if someone recommends your medical practice or hospital, the patient is still likely to go to your website to see if you appear trustworthy and credible before considering scheduling an appointment.

If your website reads like every other website in your field, you won’t wow the prospect. You must have a unique message custom tailored to your distinctive patient base and supported by helpful information created by a medical copywriter.

Here are 10 of the most popular types of digital content healthcare professionals can write:

  1. How-to articles
  2. Q/A articles
  3. Blog posts
  4. Informative videos
  5. Charts
  6. White papers
  7. Case studies
  8. Original research
  9. Infographics
  10. Photos

The internet has a growing influence over people’s choices in nearly every aspect of their lives. They look online for information on what to eat, how to dress, where to vacation and who to choose as their doctor. Healthcare providers must therefore be as thoughtful in crafting their online image as they are in decorating their office, hiring support personnel and interacting with their patients.

Need help writing copy for your healthcare website? Get a free quote.

Get Personal

While your website should be a professional representation of your healthcare practice, it shouldn’t be formal or impersonal. After all, your patients want to know something about the doctor or dentist who will be treating them.

A well-written About Us page is a great place to give your professional background as well as some of your personal views. Perhaps you have an interesting story about why you got into the medical profession.

About Us page for medical practices

Write your About Us page to give patients an insight into your background and medical philosophy.

Or maybe you want your entire medical team to be recognized on the About Us page.  Photos and professionally written medical bios can go a long way in helping patients feel they know you and can trust you.

Testimonials & Case Studies Convert Prospects into Patients

A third-party endorsement can be extremely effective in getting prospective patients to choose your practice over a competitor’s, so why not include those testimonials on your website? Most patients will be happy to give you permission to use their sincere praise of your services.

The best testimonials include specifics. In other words, rather than quote a patient saying, “I like Gordon Dermatology. They provide good service,” have them briefly describe the problem you solved:

“I developed a stubborn rash on my arms that wouldn’t go away. For weeks I itched and wore long sleeves while I tried every possible over-the-counter remedy. Finally I went to Gordon Dermatology. Dr. Gordon was able to immediately diagnose my problem and prescribe a medication. Within days the rash disappeared. I couldn’t be more grateful.”

dermatologist testimonial

Testimonials that give sincere, specific praise for your services belong on your website.

Pretty compelling, right? So the next time you have a patient who “couldn’t be more grateful,” ask him or her if you can add their kind words in writing to your website.

Want to take your healthcare marketing to the next level? Turn some of your most interesting testimonials into full-fledged case studies.

Longer and more detailed than testimonials, healthcare case studies written by a medical copywriter are extraordinary marketing tools. They’re engaging in the same way that a story with a beginning, middle and end holds your interest. In case studies, the story takes the format of a problem, solution and results.

What makes case studies so effective is that they come across as informative, as opposed to “salesy.” They lay out the facts and allow the reader to draw the positive conclusion.

case studies for healthcare practices

Think of case studies as longer, more factual testimonials that can serve as third-party endorsements for your healthcare practice.

There’s also the human element. You’re talking about someone’s individual experience and possibly even using their own words as quotes. Ideally, your reader can relate to that person’s situation.

When that happens, the reader’s thought process is likely to be, “Hmm, that’s similar to the problem I’m experiencing. If this healthcare product or service was able to help that patient, then it can surely help me. I need to contact this company.”

Good medical testimonials have the power to “unstick” reluctant patients and persuade them to finally book that doctor’s appointment or elective procedure they’ve been putting off, which is good for them and also good for your healthcare business.

Consider Adding Landing Pages

Not every visitor has to enter your medical website through the home page/front door. Instead, visitors can come through whatever entrance best fits their interests.

A landing page is where visitors arrive after clicking a link from a search engine, online ad or other type of targeted promotion. And, while you can only have one Home page, you can publish as many landing pages as you’d like.

Landing pages are highly specific, usually focused just one main subject.  For example, if you have a dermatology practice, you might consider building individual landing pages for acne, skin cancer, psoriasis and general skincare. If you have an audiology practice, create a landing page about auditory testing and another for hearing aids.

If you’re a podiatrist, you might want to add landing pages for bunions, heel pain and plantar warts.

landing pages for medical practices

Landing pages are an excellent tool for medical practices to target a specific niche market.

Landing pages should be a part of your online marketing effort.  Your written medical content should be informative, not “salesy,” although there’s nothing wrong with including a call-to-action on the page, such as, “Contact us to schedule an appointment.”

Dedicated landing pages are more likely to rise to the top of search engine results because they provide a more relevant and detailed answer than general pages. For the same reason, landing pages are also better at conversion, persuading visitors to take action. A healthcare copywriter can write these landing pages for you so they don’t detract from your time treating patients.

Need help writing landing pages? Get a free quote.

Get Found in Local Search

Capitalize on the local nature of many healthcare queries. Google reports that 63% of searchers make their decisions based on the service provider’s proximity to their home or office. You want prospective new patients who live in your area to find you.

Do more than put your address on the Contact page. Have your healthcare copywriter clearly state in multiple places on your website where you’re located and what areas you service.

Include your location

Be sure to include your location in multiple places on your website so Google searchers will know you’re local.

Get listed with Google My Business.  It’s a “free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Google Search and Google Maps,” according to Google.

It requires you to register your business online, then verifies that you are the owner by either calling you or sending some snail mail to your address.

If your healthcare organization has numerous locations, ask you medical copywriter to look into bulk verification for your local listings. “Bulk verification establishes your ability to manage information for 10 or more locations of the same business across Google products, like Maps and Search,” according to this Google help article.

Once you’re registered, you benefit by having your website appear in Google’s local business results for a given search term, such as “cardiologist Miami” or “children’s dentist Rochester” or “Los Angeles chiropractor.”

healthcare copywriter

Your healthcare website can be a powerful tool in building trust with your patients.

Your Website Must Accomplish These Goals

A professional website can be powerful. It can put you on the map and help you create a growing practice with unlimited potential. But to be effective, it must accomplish these objectives:

  • Create Trust – Unless your reputation is so well established that it precedes you, your website must establish credibility. It should, through its words and professional appearance, give visitors a comfort level that your practice is the solution to their problem. Professional copy written by a medical copywriter can go a long way in creating that trust.
  • Promote Your Full Range of Services – Your prospects should be able to see all you offer so they can determine if they’re a fit. Plus, it’s important to your existing patients to know your capabilities so they don’t seek out other providers or specialists when they have healthcare problems that you’re capable of handling.
  • Differentiate You from Competing Physicians or Hospitals – When your prospect searches for a healthcare professional, she’ll be presented with hundreds and possibly thousands of service providers. You want her to zero in on your website and be able to determine why you’re the best choice.
  • Increase Customer Loyalty – Confirm to existing clients that they’ve made a good decision in choosing you as their physician.
  • Overcome Any Concerns – You can use your website copy to refute the most common fears and objections your prospects may have. Your healthcare copywriter can clearly explain your services, experience and capabilities to win over prospective patients.
  • Reveal Your Compassion – Most patients want a physician or medical practice that not only understands their healthcare issues but is also compassionate in their treatment. Your website copy should communicate that human factor, that emotional support that makes your patients like you and your team.
  • Encourage Taking Action – It’s always easier to do nothing than something. Good medical copywriting will help the prospect to imagine the positive results of becoming your patient and gently push her to take the next step of making an appointment.
communicate compassion

Your website copy should communicate the compassion and genuine concern you show for your patients.

Other Digital Marketing Tools for Healthcare Practices

Creating a website to promote your healthcare practice is a priority. But your marketing shouldn’t be limited to one medium.  Plenty of other opportunities exist to use good copywriting in explaining your services. Consider these marketing tools:

  • Patient Reviews – Sign up on review sites. Then encourage patients to rate your services. Those reviews can accelerate the word-of-mouth effect both online and offline.  General review sites include Google Local and Yelp. Healthcare review sites for doctors, dentists and medical specialists include: HealthGrades, RateMDs, Wellness.com, RealPatientRatings, WebMD and Vitals. “Almost three quarters (72 percent) of patients use online reviews as the very first step to finding a new doctor, so your online reputation is often the first impression you make on many potential patients,” according to a 2019 survey on how patients use online reviews.
  • Ads for Online Marketing – Online sources like Google and Facebook offer unlimited opportunities for ad placement. When written effectively, these ads will drive traffic to your practice’s website. To further increase effectiveness, use ads to drive traffic to your singularly focused landing pages. Hence an ad about back sprains should drive traffic to your landing page on back sprains.
  • Blog Posts – Build your fan base and your reputation as a subject authority by writing interesting blog posts about your area of medicine. Publish the posts on your blog or website as well as LinkedIn, which has lately become a good platform for article promotion. Use your other social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to further promote each post.
  • Press Releases – Great accomplishments deserve recognition. Press releases give you an opportunity to get in front of prospects in a positive way. Good subjects might be the addition of new services, upcoming speaking engagements, awards won or even volunteer work you’re doing in the field.
  • Social Media Content – Become active on one or more social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. These networks provide opportunities to share content, promote public health campaigns (get a flu or Covid shot, have your blood pressure checked) and maintain ongoing relationships with patients. If you don’t have the time yourself, you can have a freelance healthcare copywriter be your social media point person. A well-maintained and promoted social media presence can enhance your reputation, build prestige and win you patients.

Need help writing copy for your healthcare website? Get a free quote.

social media for medical community

Use social media to stay connected with patients and promote your stellar reputation in the medical community.

By consistently creating great written content, you’re more likely to get found by potential patients, all while building your brand and positioning yourself as a leader in your medical field.

Consider Working with a Healthcare Copywriter

Composing persuasive copy takes skill and experience. If you lack the marketing know-how and time to write your own copy, consider working with a professional healthcare copywriter.

A writer who understands healthcare subjects can create compelling copy that brings in potential new patients.

healthcare copywriter

A healthcare copywriter who can write about medical topics can help you attract more patients and accelerate your practice’s growth.

A healthcare copywriter can work with you or your associates to brainstorm ideas, develop concepts and write content for all media forms including your website, blog, advertising, brochures, educational presentations, video scripts and social media.

Choosing to have someone else handle the promotion and content marketing of your medical practice allows you to grow your practice while you stay focused on what you do best — treating your patients.

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Do you need a healthcare copywriter?

Get a no-obligation quote here.

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