Welcome SCRIPPS- & AIHM-ers!!
This is THE Resource Page For YOUR Healthcare Brand Strategy and Marketing
For those of you who attended the AIHM or SCRIPPS Pre-Conference for the business of practicing Integrative Medicine, my profound thanks.
Of course it’s impossible to compress everything you could possibly want to know about brand strategy and marketing your practice into a few minutes. Obviously, I was only able to touch on a few points at the Pre-Conference.
This is a HUGE topic. It is also a topic that has huge potential to bring your practice HUGE success. This page, and this entire website, is here to share my passion for getting patients better-connected with their healers! To help you grow your practice; and help your patients recognize you as the solution to their health challenges … win/win.
That’s why I’ve set up this Resource Page for you. Here are the six sections:
- The video of my presentation from a previous workshop, above.
- List of “Essentials to Grow Your Practice,” immediately below, with links to relevant articles.
And don’t forget to check out the Russ & Randy Podcast! - Just below that is a completely free resource / guide for content marketing (in healthcare, it’s content connecting!)
- And below that, there are three videos to review (1) the value of building your email list; (2) how to build your email list; and (3) the value of social media – especially adding a blog to your website.
- The links listed at the bottom of the page, below the videos, will take you to articles on this website that will provide more detail about the importance of your brand to grow your practice. Nothing for sale. Just Free information.
- And finally, some “Secret Sauce” – a few eBooks to help you make the most of those “doctor-rating sites;” to help with your decisions on whether to use social media or not; and a thorough guide for using Patient Personas to grow your practice.
For those of you who practice Integrative Medicine, you will find that it is easy to differentiate yourself from “mainstream” or run-of-the-mill clinicians: Patients are looking for someone who will listen; who will consider alternatives to surgery or reflexive prescribing of more medications; who will be their advocate!
Of the 320 Million people living in the USA, according to NIH and the CDC, 40% of the adults use complementary and alternative remedies; 12% of children in this country are using some sort of complementary remedy. That means – conservatively – there are 100 MILLION people out there right now looking for your brand of care!
They’re looking for YOU. THAT is a HUGE “S” in your SWOT analysis – a strength that is un-matched by the rest of healthcare!
Let that be your story … let that be YOUR BRAND!
Your Practice BRAND, by Duane Knapp
Here is my interview with Duane Knapp, Global Brand Strategist,
and Author of Brand Promise, discussing your Practice Brand:
Essentials to Grow Your Practice
(CLICK to View…)
We focused on #1 on that list at the Pre-Conference. And if the only thing you do is provide your audience with trustworthy, accurate health information (“content”) that answers their health questions, you will grow your practice! Guaranteed!
But if you want to take your brand strategy to the next level to grow your DREAM practice, this website will help you do that, too…
Grow Your DREAM Practice!
If you want to take your practice to the next level, concentrate on job-#1: content; then follow the rest of the steps on that list above. Click on the links to read more on those topics.
Here is a brief description of those steps:
First, the content that you provide on your website will determine who finds your content during online search. Think about the sort of practice that you want, and answer the health questions that those patients are seeking answers for. Before long, your clinics will favor patients with those ailments. You can influence the sort of practice you have.
Even without being a techno-geek, there are easy ways to improve the SEO for your blog; read the article (click the link #2 on the list above) for more.
#3, above: No matter what you do, now is the time to build your email list! For those people that visit your website but don’t call to make an appointment, having their email address lets you remain connected with them, lets you build a long-term trusted relationship. RULE #1 for your email list: NEVER SELL; only provide trustworthy, useful information.
#4, above: How to use Google analytics is an upcoming course at our Healthcare Content Academy, so stay tuned for that. Until then, just click on the link in the list above, Google Analytics, for the article and Podcast episode.
#5, above: Using a “patient persona” to guide your content creation is guaranteed to increase your audience’s connection with your content; guaranteed to increase traffic to your website; guaranteed to grow your practice. My own use of a single persona to guide my content creation resulted in tripling traffic (yes, 3X!) to my own medical education blog, and helped grow my practice – my dream practice!
#6, above: Finally, many of you have toyed with the idea of publishing a book in your area of practice. All I can say is…DO IT! There is no single thing that can build your brand as authoring a book. The best healthcare editor and author-coach I know, Lynda Goldman, offers a FREE Health-Book-Writers Bootcamp! (click on that blue link, or click on the image below). Check it out (tell her Russ sent you). For complete transparency, I have no financial relationship with Lynda; I simply appreciate her expertise in this area. And I will be at that bootcamp.
I did interview Lynda for our podcast:
Please listen to the Russ & Randy Podcast – Healthcare’s Prescription for Web & Social (available for FREE on iTunes). Download, subscribe, and rate our podcast (5-Stars, of course!). Most of our podcast episodes are “Tips-in-10,” or practical tips for growing your practice that you can listen to in 10 minutes or less. A few episodes, especially the interviews, are about 30 minutes. Let me know whether they help you!
#7, above: Serve the different learning-styles of your audience. Sure, text is still the primary content format, and publishing your book will make you an instant authority in your practice-niche.
But also consider providing content in different formats! Think about video and audio: For those who hate to write, these can be much easier to produce than writing an article: a podcast is simply talking! So consider publishing a regular “patient-facing” podcast to grow your practice. If you hate to write, also consider producing simple clinical videos. Both of those media formats are much easier to produce than writing articles for many people; and you will reach the learner-types in your audience who prefer consuming their content in those formats!
FREE Resource (no email required)
Please take a look at this free resource: a list of 100 links on how to start your healthcare brand strategy and content marketing program. Absolutely free: no opt-in necessary. This resource list is small enough (about 400kb) to download straight from this website. Safe. Secure. And yours for free. Warning – don’t be overwhelmed: there are many topics covered in this resource, including:
- General Content Marketing
- Defining Content Marketing
- Defining “Content Brand”
- Goals of Content Marketing Strategy
- Creating Your Marketing Strategy
- Content Marketing Research
- Identifying Content Topics
- Search Engine Optimization
- Sharing Content and Social
- Content Formats: Visual / Audio / Video / Interactive
- The value of Your Story to Connect
- Benefits of re-purposing your content
- Email Connecting
- Making it Mobile Responsive
- What to do about Plagiarism
- and much more …
Click to Download Now:
Content Connecting Resources
It can be a bit overwhelming, but take your time. Focus on those topics that seem relevant to your practice needs.
Note that the topics in that resource, Content Connecting Resources, mirror the topics for the course we are developing at Healthcare Content Academy. Please EMAIL me and let me know whether those resources are useful for you, and also what topics you need the most help with – we will add those to the course! I would love to hear from you.
Speaking of email…here are a couple videos that emphasize the value of using email and your blog for connecting with your community.
Healthcare Brand Strategy
and Marketing VIDEOS
The Benefits of Building Your Email List
Providing a Value-Offer (Opt-in) to Build Your List
The Magic of Social Media & Using Your Blog to Connect
For those who hate to write, be sure to watch the short section about video-blogging (“vlogging”) in this last video at 4 min:15 sec; and the overall value of blogging in healthcare at 5 min.
Healthcare Brand Strategy
and Marketing ARTICLES
The articles below focus on the how and why of building your online brand; there’s more on the site blog (click on Content Connecting at the top).
Don’t be alarmed … there’s no quiz, and it’s pretty easy reading. For the list below, start at the top of the list, maybe read the first 2 or 3 to see whether this approach resonates with your needs. Or not.
I hope these are helpful:
- What is “BRAND” in Healthcare? And some benefits for your practice
- Five Essential Rules for Your Online Healthcare Brand
- Content: EXACTLY What Are Your (prospective) Patients Looking For?
- Is Your Brand a Zombie? And if so, what to do about it!
- Physicians and Participating in the Digital World: Reasons we give for not connecting
- In Healthcare, it’s Not Marketing (it’s connecting)
- Doctor Rating Sites: They CAN Be Your Friend
- What is “Content Marketing,” and What Does it Have to do With Your Practice?
- Story Telling in Healthcare
- Wendy Sue Swanson (@SeattleMamaDoc) says, “We have an obligation to our patients …”
- How to Create Personas and Use Them to Guide Your Content Creation
Healthcare Brand Strategy
and Marketing GUIDES
(the Secret Sauce …)
Again … thank you so much for visiting! And feel free to share with friends.
To be updated when our courses ‘go live,’
sign up at Healthcare Content Academy.
I Don’t Have Time…
Can You Do It For Me ?
Sure, we’re great at teaching, coaching and helping folks get going with their healthcare content marketing. We’re a great how-to resource.
But we’re also a great done-for-you resource: if you are simply too busy to consider healthcare brand strategy and marketing for yourself, and you’re looking for a “turn-key,” done-for-you program to brand and market and help grow your practice, we can do that too. Take a look at this website and email or call to chat about your needs and explore solutions with great ROI!