During the planning stage of your copywriting for your medical practice website or your physician business website, you need to understand exactly what it is you hope your website to accomplish.

• Do you want the visitor to contact you to learn about becoming a patient, or a client?
• Do you want to sell something?
• Or invite your visitors to become members of something?
• Or download something of value to them so that they begin to perceive your medical practice or physician business as their solution?

Perhaps you have already determined that you need to build a subscriber base, circulate information, increase practice revenues by growing your numbers of patients.  But in order to accomplish these differing (and not mutually exclusive!) goals, you must make sure that your web copy will support your efforts.

1. Decide who your ideal customers are and what they really want.  Then find and craft the words that will most effectively bring these people to your site.  Include your best keywords and keyword phrases.

2. Create a plan. Without a detailed plan, it will become impossible to know whom you are targeting.  Without a target, you are likely to miss out on those people who are willing and eager to pay for your help and expertise.

3. Realize that your target audience is typically smarter and more knowledgeable than the average visitor to a website. Now that you have started planning, you need to start looking at whom to target.

Targeting is used to figure out what group of customers will have the problems that can be solved by using your particular service or product.  It is therefore vital that you become an expert in not only your target market, but also in knowing every single benefit that your service or product offers.

Once you determine whom you need to target, you can begin to search them out.  Build a profile of those people who will benefit from your help the most.  Once you know who they are and what problems they want solved or desires they need satisfied, then address your writing directly to them, using the most magnetic of the benefits your service or product can offer as “bait”. To discover what these Benefits are, ask your current happy patients or clients. They’ll tell you!

What do you value most/love best about our medical practice?
What made you choose me/us as your XYZ person?
What keeps you coming back?

At last, you have found your target audience, and now you must develop a strategy for writing your copy.  In order to do this, the best way is to do the following:

1.    Write about what the customer wants to hear – answer their – use  WIIFM question (What’s In It For Me?).
2.    Create the tone that is inviting to those you’re targeting, using their language.
3.    Present your idea(s) simply and concisely.

Get writing!

Related articles

• 5 ways to improve your medical practice in 2011 (kevinmd.com)
• Is Web Copy Ruining Your Design? (sixrevisions.com)

Do you want to grow your medical practice or physician business? Yes?

A 21st-century approach to attracting new patients or clients is to leverage the power of Internet marketing. Now before you curl up your lip in a sneer at the thought of “medical practice marketing”, consider this option.

How would you like to be perceived as a Expert in your field? I bet that feels more comfortable.

How then would your potential patients or clients uncover your expertise?

There’s a simple answer, available at your fingertips right away. You can use article marketing and social media marketing to get the attention of the exact audience you are trying to reach. These two techniques go very well hand-in-hand.

Start by writing articles about everything you know – you may be surprised how many people find you on social media sites. Use words in your articles that are key to that market and post your articles on popular articles sites such as Ezinearticles.com

Here’s how this works:

1. Ask people what they want to hear about. They will tell you.

2. Pay attention to what your clients or patients are asking or telling you in their interactions with you.

3. This will influence what you write about and help connect you to what they they are listening for.

4. Do your research, offer a valuable opinion, explain, advocate — do whatever it is you do best, and begin writing.

You will be perceived as an Expert in no time, with the reach and power of the Internet.

These days, everyone you need to reach is already online. Even if services are exclusively offered to seniors. Because the reality is that most seniors have family members who are desperately trying to find resources for them, and who tend to be computer-literate as well.

Reach out and become a familiar figure for your potential patients or clients. Offer something free and valuable and then use an opt-in box to get people to sign up to receive your “freebie” and your future communications.

To talk about your specific services without seeming boastful, self-aggrandizing or too “markety”, share stories and case studies. But be careful how you do this – be very cognizant of how you protect the privacy of anyone you’re talking about

To increase your Internet exposure, follow colleagues or other experts through their blogs and sites. Add  comments with your thoughtful observations, questions or opinions. Not only are you adding value to their site but you are also getting those valuable links back to yours, if you’re able to leave your URL on the site. This is the “social” of social media marketing.

The final touch is to share your article or blog post via some of the more popular social media marketing sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Related articles

• 6 Signs (for Physicians) that Social Media is Not for You (33charts.com)

An excellent summary article on how to optimize your website for the search engines , that was published on American Express’s Open Forum in late June this year, highlights why paying attention to certain details in the set up and content of your medical practice website will produce a big payoff.

But first, what is SEM (search engine marketing)?

The article defines Search Engine Marketing as

…a complex topic that focuses on search engine optimization (SEO), but also includes the use of paid advertising and contextual advertisements in order to bring a website’s articles or product pages to the top of search engine result pages (SERPs)

Which leads us to the next question – what is SEO?

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

In a nutshell, the article’s top 5 tips for you to produce great SEM results include:

1. Get to know what SEO is, and what is needed to optimize your website.  This is not as hard as knowing all the current best drugs for disease conditions! There’s a link to a great free e-book, and you can learn more by signing up for your freebies at Physician Website Secrets
2. Figure out your website’s grade – the article explains how!
3. Fix the little things quickly. Give your webmaster a list of the things you want attended to ASAP. Which things? you ask. The ones the free book and the Physician Website Secrets  program will teach you about!
4. Use plug-ins that do the work for you. The article mentions a couple. The one I use (am using this as I write right now!) is called SEO Scribe (A) – super easy and very educational!
5. Get inbound links – these are links coming to your website. They can come from others writing about or quoting you and linking to your website, your comments on other blogs in which you “leave” your website’s URL on another site, writing a review on a site such as Amazon once you have created a profile with your own URL.

What few tweaks can you make to your medical practice website to show up on page 1 of the search engine results?

A recent post on Better Health, 4 Reasons Why Doctors Don’t Use LinkedIn and the subsequent comments, got me thinking about how to use the power of the Internet to the best advantage for your medical practice promotion.

Yes, medical practices are “hyperlocal” and yes, most practices have traditionally grown through word of mouth and referral from colleagues.

However, I believe that by not participating in sites like LinkedIn, the physician business owner who wants to grow a medical practice is missing an excellent marketing opportunity.

Here’s why.

Your presence on LinkedIn isn’t only to woo prospective patients or even physician referrers who may possibly choose to search LinkedIn for your services. In fact, I feel confident that this doesn’t happen much.

Instead, the greatest value of a LinkedIn profile (or a practice-specific Facebook Page for that matter) might be to woo the Google and MSN and Yahoo search engines and the likes.

When you carefully select and use keyword phrases that match your specialty and your local geography (e.g. Manhattan Upper Eastside internist, Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Kalamazoo urologist etc.), you are more likely to show up on page 1 of Google for that prospective patient who’s looking frantically on the Internet for services like yours in your neighborhood at 3 AM.

The reason why this happens is this.

Both LinkedIn and Facebook are so hugely popular and trafficked that the search engines hold in higher esteem their results than the URL for your own practice website. In turn, your LinkedIn profile or Facebook Page (take note – this is NOT the same as your Facebook Profile) should be set up to direct the searcher to your medical practice or physician business website.

For the small amount of effort it takes to create a readable, intriguing online presence with these highly-trafficked social media sites, in which you provide more detail about your current practice and its location than you do about your past jobs (along with your practice philosophy, and hopefully a cool 2 minute video of you talking and welcoming the visitor to your site!), these basically free social media marketing tools may yield some surprising results for your medical practice promotion strategies.

If this information about medical practice marketing is useful, you might want to get more free information here — my secrets to using the Internet to generate revenues for your medical practice or physician business.

As someone who has had success with social media marketing as a big component of my physician coaching business’s marketing plan, I was intrigued to receive a complimentary copy of Shama Hyder Kabani’s book “The Zen of Social Media Marketing” (affiliate link) to review.

Billed as “the last social media guide you’ll ever need”, this eagerly-awaited book from my friend and colleague Shama, had to meet some pretty high expectations (friendship notwithstanding!)

For the uninitiated, social media marketing refers to:

• blogging, with comments enabled
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Sermo etc….

… and the many other networking arenas that encourage thinking out loud, dialog, commentary and feedback.

I am happy to endorse the book not only for it’s lucid conversational writing but also for its encouragement and “take-you-by-the-hand” approach to guiding and teaching.

And since social media marketing is an ever-evolving area, owners of the book get password-protected access to updates.

For the social media marketing novice, it’s a gift.

If you have heard of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, but not dared to dip a toe in the water yet (or not deemed it important to your medical practice or physician business), I strongly recommend the book as your personal coach to getting immersed. And you can download a personal workbook from the companion website to prompt your planning.

For the marketer with some or plenty of experience, you’ll discover there is room for improvement — I found myself tweaking the different components of my social media marketing strategy as I dug into each chapter.

I have also attached a quick document I created some time ago when I started teaching the topic — feel free to download “What IS Social Media Marketing” and share it.

I’m inclined to believe that this book may be the last social media guide you’ll ever need, as long as we can hold the delightful Shama to her promise to keep us updated online!

Happy reading and toe-dipping!

One of the hardest tasks you as a physician face when confronted with the need for medical practice promotion is writing copy for your medical practice website. This needs to be done in a way that excites your browsing visitor AND persuades these potential patients that YOU are the one they have been looking for, and that they need to follow up with your medical practice right away!

How hard can that be? you ask. All you have to do is write well (after all, you did minor in English in undergrad!) and describe to your folks visiting your medical practice website just how great your practice is, and they will start flocking in, in droves every week.

Wrong!

Persuasive copy that incites the visitor to your medical practice website to take action (“copy” is the words you use on your website to describe your practice, services or business) is some of the hardest writing to do.

It presumes that you know your potential patients or customers well enough that you can accurately pinpoint their emotional state when they are desperately searching for medical services like yours at 2:00 AM.

That your marketing message is neatly tailored to their desires and needs in such a way that they go “Bingo – she’s just the person I’ve been looking for in my neighborhood”!

One great resource for terrific help with copywriting is Copyblogger – I’ve been a reader and fan of the blog for quite some time.

Well, Brain Clark of Copyblogger has just released a free report (no strings attached – you don’t even have to give your email address) called “How to Create Compelling Content That Ranks Well in Search Engines”.

It’s packed with useful info to help you master the Intro 101 level of copywriting – I suggest you get hold of a copy now and start to tweak your medical practice website right away.

(BTW, I use their Scribe product to check my posts for their SEO friendliness and I highly recommend it – nothing to be gained from this little promo, except a good feeling of being of help to you if you choose to use it for your WordPress posts. This post scored 100%!)

PS: Don’t forget to go over and claim your free CD with a bunch of other medical practice website secrets at Physician Website Secrets !

I wrote a post at The Entrepreneurial MD today highlighting ways in which Google Alerts (and their newest cousins AlertRanks) can help you in your physician business’s or medical practice’s online marketing efforts and social media interactions.

Your goal as a physician business owner online is to add value to the conversation, not solely to use the Internet to promote and sell. By keeping a finger on the pulse of your specialty, your local community (yes, you can even set up Google Alerts to monitor your community, using targeted keywords and keyword phrases) and the interests and desires of your “target market”, you can share enormous quantities of information efficiently and helpfully.

Your results enable you the become the “Google”, sorting through the heaps of information, for your tribe!

Check out the post on Google Alerts for entrepreneurial physician practices and businesses here.

People pay good money for information from reliable resources, and as a physician, you are regarded by most as an Expert with great knowledge and experience to share.

What if you could package up that knowledge to use for medical practice promotion using educational marketing, or to even sell it to people eager to learn from a doctor?

Examples of information products for your business or practice include:

• an audio program that serves as an inducement to get a prospective patient or client to sign up on your website, enabling you to begin a (hopefully) productive long-term relationship
• an educational freebie about healthy living to give away at meetings or in the local coffee shop or health club
• a “how-to” 5-CD course that teaches parents how to care for their child’s asthma
• a downloadable audio program helping patients understand what to expect when they undergo a course of treatment or go through a surgery that you offer

Creating and producing this material is a daunting exercise for many physicians, who tend to be perfectionists. However, in the Internet and technology era, all the tools you need are literally at your fingertips.

From the comfort of home and using my computer, a webcam and some software programs, I have been able to create an entire 12-week multimedia program teaching physicians what’s involved in having a revenue-generating website built for your practice or business. Yes, your website can and will pay for itself in spades, if done right!!

Now I’m not suggesting you start out quite as ambitiously. It has taken me some time to figure this out, and I am still learning.

However, you too could create your first information product in under a week, if you were to follow my 5 simple step process to creating your first entrepreneurial physician information product.

Isn’t it time to consider adding an information product to your medical practice promotion and marketing plan?

I wish you a fun, creative, revenue-generating time!

1. Be discoverable

Done right, your search-engine optimized website will enable you to own the number 1 position in the search engines for the search terms your prospective patients are using. These search terms aren’t the ones you are thinking of — you need to use the available tools to discover how your prospects are finding out about you on the Internet.

2. Broadcast your Brand

Good design and well-written, thoughtful web copy will communicate the “promise” of your practice.

3. Build your reputation

You can use a blog and/or an article library on your site to share your expertise on the topics on which you are an authority. Remember – an Authority doesn’t mean you are a world-famous clinician or researcher. It simply means you know a whole lot more than your patients and are eager to share that knowledge!

4. Create trust

Your bio and credentials, your shared expertise, perhaps an introductory video or audio — all these elements, when crafted carefully, serve to enhance the perception that you can be trusted.

5. Declare your distinctiveness

Look around at the many medical practice websites out there. You’ll be intrigued to see how generic and even formulaic they appear. Find a way to set yourself apart – show your authentic professional self. And clearly communicate the benefits of a relationship with you and your practice. Forget about telling them how wonderful you are!

6. Enhance practice productivity

Your website has the potential to be an industrious “employee” of the practice, never sleeping, always there to comfort and reassure, enlighten and facilitate office processes. Use it wisely!!

7. Generate revenue

Attention to all of these details adds up to money coming into the bank. The more patients can find you, the more they trust and like you, the easier it is to refer to you, the simpler it is to work with your practice — this is pure gold for your bottom line.

8. Attract your ideal patients

By putting thought into whom you would like to have as patients in your practice, what language and  imagery these ideal patients would resonate with, what their medical conditions are, you are able to subtly communicate encouragement to those patients to drop in to meet you!
For example, had I been smarter and had it been the Internet era when I was still in practice, I would have recognized that I was developing a little “sub-niche” with perimenopausal and menopausal women for whom I loved caring. I could have tailored my website message and educational tools to appeal directly to them, thereby making them welcome in my practice.

9. Educate these ideal patients

People turn to the Internet in huge numbers and at all times of the day and night to get good quality health information. Use your website to answer questions in an educational non-prescriptive way, highlight questions that were brought up by patients that week and give educational answers on your site, create an FAQ section that updates with the seasons or what’s hot in your field. Use your imagination — the opportunities are unlimited here.

10. Grow your practice

Pay attention to the first 9 of these reasons and your practice will inevitably grow and thrive!

Good luck.

For more information on how to create a truly revenue-generating medical practice or physician business website, go to Physician Website Secrets.

Whether you are in a medical practice or you have a non-clinical physician business, you are fortunate to be running it in the 21st century.

Why?

Because the costs of acquiring new patients or customers have dropped dramatically with the development of the Internet as a place to do a ton of your medical practice or physician business promotion.

Number 1 tool for medical practice or physician business marketing is an effective search-engine optimized website. That’s a subject for other posts!

And number 2 on my list of valuable marketing tools would be blogging.

This short video highlights the top three reasons to blog.

Tomorrow, look for an article on  three tips to make blogging an easy marketing strategy for your medical practice or physician business.

In the meanwhile, get your free video on Physician Website Secrets here.