online content ideas for doctors
Online content inspiration for busy doctors
With many experts talking about ‘content marketing’, your time-poor calendar often makes it hard to sit down and create content for your online presence, website or social media channels. So here’s a 5-step inspiration pack to get you underway!
online content ideas for doctors
Online content inspiration for busy doctors
Kris Borgraeve
April 21, 2022
Content about the mechanics of private healthcare
private healthcare marketing
If – as a doctor – you were born and raised here in Australia, then you may not realise that the health system has its complexities. For new Australians, navigating the realities of public and private healthcare is often challenging.
So even if for you, it is very obvious that you are a private health practice helping privately insured patients, there might be grey areas.
What we see is that clarity is one of your key currencies as a doctor. The more you can help patients understand the fee structures and administrative aspects of their journey, the more you will be of service.
"If you can, create a clear overview of the fee structures and the private healthcare procedure that applies to your treatment options or surgeries. It helps patients see you as an excellent service provider."
There is a second reason to include fee information and details about private health coverage and gap fees on your website.
These topics are often popular search terms that patients actively google for. So when you have content to answer these questions, you will show up in these very specific online searches and that visibility brings relevant traffic to your website. Possibly even new patients because once they’re here, why wouldn’t they check out your entire profile?
Content ideas for doctors include much more than just discussing the health system, so let’s look at other content angles you can use to make your medical website attract more patients and convert more leads.
Content about what inspired you to be a doctor
doctor’s reputation
This is a big one when we go over content ideas for doctors. People connect with people and in healthcare, that statement is more than relevant. A doctor’s reputation is often driven by human features, not medical or clinical achievements.
If you only write about your qualifications and experience, or about the details of the conditions that you treat, guess what. You will have an academically impeccable website, yet, it will be uninspired and dry. A doctor’s reputation is about qualifications and experience, agreed, and yet, as patients we want to know whether we will trust this human being or choose someone else.
That is why ‘why’ content is great. Let me explain that in a video.
Content about what to expect
patient expectations
Patients are human beings first. Fear, worry and anxiety are common when we are confronted with a health concern. What really helps is clarity about the steps that are involved, from the patient’s perspective. Patient expectations are a complex area, including the discussed outcomes of a treatment, the level of (dis)comfort, the clarity of the information, the transparency about recovery times and results, and the way you feel supported as a patient.
As a qualified, experienced doctor with a decade of experience, you may sometimes find it challenging to step in your patient’s shoes. Whenever you write content about what to expect as a patient, make sure you check it with a consumer, not just with your team.
This type of content should include information that caters for various information needs on the side of the patient, covering different types of patient expectations.
- Timeline: A clear view of what happens when. A day, a week, a month suddenly seem to last longer when someone is waiting for progress or information on their health journey. Patient expectations are often irrational and unstructured, and it’s your opportunity to be a guide, a coach and a support person for them.
- Logic: If decisions depend on information and outcomes, visualise the scenarios in a clear if-this-then-that type of infographic or info sheet.
- Holistic: The clarity should be not just about the medical and clinical procedures, tests, consultations and follow-up procedures. It is critical to let the patient know when and how they can count on your team to discuss their treatment.
Quite often the key expectation a patient has is linked to your listening skills, your willingness to just be there for them when they are digesting information.
In our daily work with leading specialists, we see one type of content creating substantial volumes of conversions: Content that expresses how you will help the patient manage their expectations in a grounded, honest and supportive way.
Content about common misconceptions
web content for doctors
Web content for doctors serves many purposes. It informs patients who have already found your website. It attracts and converts traffic to generate leads.
The one thing web content for doctors does really well is save you time. How? By explaining aspects of the medical journey that you would usually explain in person over and over again.
Now of course, a web page won’t replace the essence of your consultation, which is about assessing the personal medical information for this particular patient, to then make decisions about the personalised treatment options.
Some misconceptions can be explained in a generic way, on a web page or in a short video:
- You can link to this page from all other pages on your website and flag that this is important information. It will save you time in your consultations.
- Your reception team can include a link to this information before or after the first consultation, again saving time.
- The misconceptions will often include additional terms and keywords that patients are googling for and as you now know, having online visibility matters to generate additional patient leads. Even the misconceptions and the content about what is often misunderstood when we talk about your specialty area, are solid opportunities to produce additional content that makes you rank higher on Google.
This content may include popular names that may not be academically accurate, but that are still used by the patient when they do a Google search.
Content to answer the essential FAQs
what to blog about as a doctor
What to blog about as a doctor? What to write on your content pages to make your website compelling, informative and visible in Google Search?
FAQs are gold.
They are the questions you or your receptionist keep answering. These questions indicate where the information gaps exist, between your specialised knowledge and what the consumer, the patient, actually knows without having attended Medical School.
FAQs are pure gold for another reason.
"Once you’re able to identify what the most prominent questions are, asked by patients in the context of a phone call with your reception team or in a consultation, you are ready to build great content. Because patients will also ask their question on Google."
In a do-it-yourself format, you would list these frequently asked questions for your specialty area and then work with your content marketing agency to produce blogs or pages that answer these questions.
Dr Weranja Ranasinghe for example, lists typical questions that GPs may have, in an effort to facilitate the cooperation between his urology practice and the local GPs in Melbourne.
Dr Chris Nichols has a concise FAQ page that helps the reception team save time, because some of these returning questions are answered in brief on one of the web pages.
Let’s talk about content!
content writers for medical
Here at Digital Practice, we are content writers for medical websites and we are also your business development partner. Every paragraph is supported by extensive and local market research applied to your medical specialty area, so your content creates organic Google visibility and helps you grow your practice. Book a free 1:1 consultation to discuss your ideal content strategy.
- Tags: Leadership
