trust Archives - Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

Is Your Content Providing Value? | 5 Easy Questions to Ask

February 12, 2019 by Randall Wong, M.D.

As healthcare providers, we provide value to our patients all the time. Every time we make a diagnosis and a treatment plan, we provide tremendous value to our "consumers" and to our community.

Providing value on the Internet, however, seems to be less obvious to us. Perhaps it's because we do not really understand what's valuable.

Here's why value is integral to any marketing strategy and some very easy ways to gauge if our content has value. Providing value is very easy of all the other industries on the Internet. As healthcare providers, we are naturally the de facto authorities.

Why Value?

There are many reasons why we need to be creating value with our digital marketing. Here are just 3 reasons why:

Build Trust - the only way a patient is going to call and make an appointment is after you have become trusted. Every time a new patients says "I've done my research," they are saying they've vetted you and trust you. No one makes an appointment solely because your website was at the top of a Google search. You have to be on the top and then also develop trust.
Engage - valuable articles/content are interesting to the reader. Ergo, your content makes your article/website/SM platform more engaging. Engaging platforms encourage additional reading/learning and build trust very quickly.
SEO - content which is shareable (links back to your site) give a quick boost to SEO.

5 Easy Questions to Ask

Here's a quick list of questions you might ask about your content.

Does it educate? This is really easy. Educational content is easy for health providers to create. We educate all day and to every patient. Using some of these well rehearsed and frequent topics easily provides value to our readers.
Is it shareable? Would one of your readers consider sharing your content with someone else? Might they tweet or post on their own page? Shareable means valuable.
Can it be fact checked? Most of this is easy for healthcare. Everything we do is based on fact (evidence based medicine) and, therefore, can be easily fact checked. As subject matter experts (authorities), we provide tremendous value to our prospective patients.
Is this interesting? Your content may not be interesting to everyone, but it will sure appeal to those interested in that particular subject. As long as your article/content is interesting to a percentage of your patient population, it's interesting.
Does it solve a problem or answer a question? If your content directly answers a question someone is "Googling," then it's relevant and of value.

You must answer "yes" to only one of these questions. It's easy...and valuable.

Your Online Authority

March 6, 2013 by Randall Wong, M.D.

Readers naturally search for an authority. Authorities have the most credibility. Your goal is to become a medical authority….online. You are already an authority at work!

Every Website Must Provide Value

Every website must provide value. Contrary to popular belief, most people are surfing the Internet with a specific purpose. They are in search of an answer to a question or solution to a problem (really the same thing).

Remember the 3 types of websites? Resource, Marketing and Interactive. Regardless of the type of website you have, your website already provides value. For instance, a basic “resource” site containing hours of operation, insurance information and directions provides value to your existing patients who know they can find this type of information on your site.

To improve your value and to turn your site into a powerful marketing tool, write articles on your site to answer your patients’ questions and solve their problems. This is the best way your site can provide value and to rank you highly at the same time.

Value Breeds Trust

The more value you provide, and for free, the more trust you will develop.

Trust in you does not develop with one article. It builds after several articles and over time. Trust allows patients to leave comments and ask questions on your site. Trust motivates “readers” to become real patients.

Credibility and Authority

Your degree gives you a certain level of credibility, hence, it will be easier and faster for you to develop trust compared to those without a degree. You are, therefore, able to provide tremendous value to your readers by sharing your knowledge as an authority.

Remember, who else would be better to provide health information than you?

What Can You Do?

Don’t advertise. Prove your authority and develop your trust by writing consistently and regularly. It’s no different than educating our patients in an office setting. Writing knowledgeably about what you do will provide tremendous value to your future patients. Providing credible information establishes your authority and will accelerate the development of trust.

To Your Growth And Success!

Randy

Randall V. Wong, M.D.
Medical Website Optimization
www.MedicalMarketingEnterprises.com

Creating Value on Your Medical Website

July 22, 2011 by Randall Wong, M.D.

Successful websites create value for the visitor. Does your medical website create value for your potential patients?

By creating value, you’ll attract more visitors to your site and more patients walking through your door.

For you to have a successful website with high rankings, a medical practice must give something valuable away for ‘free.’ Free develops trust and credibility. “Free” starts the social media conversation.

Create Value

The first step to attracting patients to your site is to create value. Creating value comes in different forms for a medical practice.

The simplest way to create value for your website (and therefore your practice) is to provide health information. Why? Because it’s what patients are searching for…answers.

80% of Americans are on the Internet Looking for Answers

By providing answers to their questions, you have created value.

Giving Value Away for Free

This is a tough concept for most physicians, but yet we do it everyday. It’s not services you’ll give away, it’s not your advice either, it’s just information about health, aka it’s patient education.

The best value we can create is to educate …and for free.

Why Give Away Health Information?

As health care providers, we are the authorities in our fields. Who better to educate than the experts?

Those medical practices that choose to recognize this need will be rewarded with;

high ranking web pages
increasing patient base
stronger relationships with existing patients
recognition as a trusted health expert

Improving Your Web Rankings

Providing fresh relevant content is the key to successful website optimization and performance. A website that provides relevant, refreshed and regular content will be rewarded with high rankings. (A simple fancy web design, or redesign, does nothing for your rankings.)

What is content? The content will be your articles and posts containing the answers to their questions. It’s simple and straight forward. Publishing articles on your website that provides answers….will move you higher and higher in the rankings.

This is the core of content marketing strategies. This is the core of medical SEO or website optimization for a medical practice.

Medical website optimization is the only way to achieve and maintain high rankings on search engine results pages (SERP).

Building Trust in Your Community

Regardless of how you define your community, whether it is within your local zip code or your virtual neighborhood, “free” opens the door to credibility and trust. A site that is credible and trustworthy says alot about its doctors and staff. Certainly much more than those practices that don’t even have a web site.

This is the modern way of distinguishing yourself from your competitors. Those practices that are able to establish trust and credibility will gain a healthy advantage over those practices choosing to remain isolated.