Writing a healthcare blog probably isn’t high up on your to-do list today. After all, you have a busy medical practice to run and there are 101 other things that need your attention. From a never-ending queue of patients, to organising healthcare clinics, medical reps, staffing issues and regulatory meetings, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. Administrative tasks alone take up roughly 11% of a GP’s time.*
So, with all that workload, why should you create a blog for your medical practice? Medical practices, according to Hubspot, that regularly post informative articles to their blogs experience a 55 percent increase in traffic to their website and are around 13 times more likely to see a return on investment each year.
How a blogging strategy can help your medical practice?
What if your patients could have access to reliable forms of advice and information straight from your website, from the doctors that they know, trust and have built relationships with over many years? What if they could read answers to the questions that they want to ask their doctor, without having to make an appointment?
There’s a lot of talk about ‘fake news’ these days and the prevalence of medical misinformation being widely spread courtesy of the internet, ‘Dr. Google’ and various social media networks. It’s a noisy and, often, misinformed world out there.
But wait… your medical practice is able to address the top healthcare topics that people are talking about. Your expertise, training and understanding of your local community gives you an impressive opportunity to help shape their healthcare education, as well as informing patients of the wellbeing initiatives available in your area.
What should you write about?
Make It Topical – What are the questions you hear most in your medical practice? What are the concerns that your patients have? What terms are being used in the news that may need further explanation? Are there medical myths that you’d like to address, enabling you to give accurate, up to date information to your patients?
Address the unspeakable – Medical matters aren’t always easy to talk about and many people find it too embarrassing to ask for help. There are lots of reasons why someone might feel awkward about making a medical appointment. The blog that you write for your medical practice is an ideal place to discuss sensitive topics so that your patients have access to vital, accurate medical information that makes them feel easier about reaching out to your medical team for further support and treatment. Become a community resource that your patients trust and can turn to at any time of the day or night.
Community Involvement – Many doctors’ offices and medical practices are at the very centre of their communities. From childbirth to old age, we develop an ongoing relationship with our medical teams throughout our lives. What are the achievements that your community are proud of? What are the initiatives that you’d like your community to get involved with? Remind your patients about healthcare updates, vaccinations and check-ups. Salute your hardworking staff and help your patients get to know your team better.
The language of friendship – Medical terms and pharmaceutical names can be confusing. Write your blog posts in a way that you would speak to your friends. Explain, Guide and Educate. Ensure that your blog post titles are clear and easy to understand and that the information is helpful and up to date. Give your patients a reason to keep visiting your blog and ensure that there’s always fresh and interesting blog posts for them to read. Allow them to sign up to receive each new blog post directly to their email inbox.
Your medical practice website has developed over the years and many now allow patients to sign in to schedule appointments, order repeat prescriptions and view personal records. A constant stream of personalised and relatable information for your community is a way to build stronger relationships and build partnerships with a variety of local services.
The key to writing a top medical blog is to ensure that your community is at the very heart of each post. GP surgeries are healthcare hubs for us all whether we live in cities, towns or villages but many people these days feel lonely, isolated and unable to ask for help.
Be the ‘Good News’ that your community needs! Celebrate the good and the outstanding, the breakthroughs and successes.
We’ve found, whilst working with our medical clients, that there are many more ways to educate and inform patients about their healthcare, medical practices & the dedicated team of professionals who run them. We understand the stressful demands of GP surgeries, hospitals and clinics and we offer a specialist blogging service with our team of professional medical writers and bloggers. If you’d like to find out more and arrange a free consultation with us, please fill out the form below:
Sources: Future of Primary Care, Primary Care Workforce Commission, July 2015
