work-life balance

Digital tips to create a better work-life balance

Did you know that your online content can help you create the right work-life balance as a doctor? In this article, we explore the power of patient prequalification using digital marketing, to create a healthy level of work-life balance as a doctor in private practice. 

work-life balance

Digital tips to create a better work-life balance

Kris Borgraeve - Co-founder Digital Practice

Kris Borgraeve

July 7, 2022

The innovative approach to patient pre-qualification

mental health of doctors

The focus on business growth in private practice is often a key element. In recent years, the mental health of doctors has been a hot topic in the context of the pandemic. But financial stress can also be a reality even if your practice is thriving. 

That is why our consultants always keep an eye on the bigger picture when we help you position your clinic online. Through dozens of strategies for leading surgeons and specialists, we have been able to see trends:

  • Better content = better Google visibility for your key treatments, services or surgeries
  • High-quality website content = more conversions of your ideal patient type
  • Ongoing on-page SEO work = more freedom for you as a doctor to shape your practice so it matches your idea of a good work-life balance.

In other words, the focus of digital marketing is not always on just attracting more patients or building a successful practice in terms of numbers and volumes.

A secondary question is: How can we influence the quality of the patients you see? In the past, you would work on your relationships with general practitioners to make sure you only get the type of referrals that allow you to be at your best.

With the new reality of online research by patients, you are now in an even more empowered position to pre-qualify your patient leads. As we will see, online content marketing can now help you increase the efficacy of your private practice, attracting only the visibility you really want.

Only show up for the services you want to promote

practice turnover

Once you embrace your online content as a dynamic representation of your practice, you can use it to create predictable growth. Content marketing can help you grow your numbers or it can assist with a process that we call pre-qualification. 

If you want to perform more surgeries for type A, and less for type B, your content will focus more on visibility for type A. It does not mean that a patient who needs surgery B will experience a lower service level. It just means that you are tweaking your online visibility with a focus on your work-life balance. It’s not just about practice turnover. This is about your position in the market and the type of work you will be doing 12-24 months down the track.

You define how you will spend your time in your consultation room.
You decide about the types of surgeries you will be performing. In fact, creating a predictable content marketing system for your practice is the key to higher levels of freedom as a surgeon or specialist.

In the end, you decide about the type of life you will be leading as a doctor who is also running a business.

The patient pre-qualification happens at this important level where you highlight specific services in your keyword strategy. If you haven’t put in place a content marketing strategy for your private practice, check out our unique articles about medical SEO and business growth for specialists and surgeons:

The power of story-telling as a doctor

personal profile

Another trend we see is the impact of your personal profile as a doctor. Shaping your story beyond just a copy of your resume is a skill, because the consumer looks at your information with a specific filter. It can be summarised as:

  • Do I trust this human being?
  • Do I see a professional clinic and environment?
  • Is the information reassuring, helpful and clear?
  • Is there a call to action or a clear next step?
  • Can I feel rapport, genuine care, and authenticity?

Patients are consumers before they become a patient. They are humans with habits and standards. Online content reaches them in so many different formats and the content they are most familiar with is often from big brands: their bank. Their media outlet. Their favourite shops. Their healthcare fund.

So the surgeon or specialist who chooses to outsource her or his online presence to a junior web developer in a cheap labour market will inevitably have a different kind of online story.

work-life balance

Story-telling means that the information is not just published. In the medical journalism production process we can clearly see these key steps before a piece of content is ready for the patient:

  1. Market research: What are the actual questions that patients type into Google in regard to this condition, treatment, service or surgery type? Which of those questions allows you to offer a unique perspective?
  2. Patient education: What are the common questions or misconceptions, the information gaps and voids that you have detected in your patient cohort over the years? How can we make the medical information palatable for anyone who lands on your website and who has not attended Medical School?
  3. Business focus: What are the key messages about your story and your practice you want the patient to remember?
  4. Editorial work: Organising the information in a logical way means that we build the navigation system and every single page so it guides the patient through the information in the most optimal way. Even your ‘what to expect’ information can be organised so it creates both Google visibility and helps the patient with a clear summary about what to expect from a treatment or surgery journey.

We are passionate about this work because it allows us to repurpose our media and journalism skills across every strategy. Telling your story to a patient who is eager to find clear and reliable information is always a privilege because we understand how life-changing your information can be, long before your treatment makes a difference to a patient.

This is 2024 and patients are also online consumers

innovative marketing

Static marketing is what we used to have when you would look at your website as a commodity. Every 5-6 years you would have a painful process with a web agency, organising this one-time activity of redoing the website. 

Dynamic medical marketing requires a different approach. Innovative marketing is based on data and local market research. In other words: you need to keep your eyes on the ball.

Kris Borgraeve - Co-founder Digital Practice
Kris Borgraeve | Co-founder Digital Practice

"Gone are the days when you could just abandon your website and hope for visitors and patient numbers. Innovative marketing for doctors means that you measure your visibility for specific niche topics on a monthly basis. Then you decide what new content you need."

Because that’s the thing. We now know for a fact that Google visibility comes from genuine, reliable quality content and that is why this magazine covers medical SEO in all its glory across a series of palatable articles and videos. 

Patients are online consumers, and they follow patterns and search trends, depending on your niche and where they are on their health journey.

If your online results are falling behind, it’s probably time to check if the strategy you are using needs an update.

Let's meet

Let us help you create balanced success

private practice development

At Digital Practice, we are passionate about private practice development as a business activity.

We bring in our media and communication expertise and a deep understanding of the private practice as a business. That’s why we will always talk about this buzzword work-life balance when we define the trajectory of your online marketing.

Book a free 1:1 consultation now to look at the role digital marketing can play in the journey of your private practice.

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