Physician thought leadership can be an inexpensive and highly effective marketing tool for your practice. You may have heard the phrase, “content is king.” Thought leadership is providing timely, relevant educational content that fosters credibility and connection with your practice. Blog articles, videos, e-newsletters and social media are all tools you can use to provide thought leadership.
It is more subtle than what many think of as traditional marketing because thought leadership isn’t about directly promoting you and your practice. It’s about proactively providing the information and insight your patients and referral sources seek within your area of expertise. Here are a few suggestions for thought leadership content:
- Discuss individual conditions you treat, including signs/symptoms and risk factors.
- Share preventive health strategies.
- Explain individual diagnostic tests that you perform.
- Inform patients about what they can expect from a specific treatment or procedure.
- Review emerging new treatment options.
- Highlight the results of new published research.
- Educate about clinical trials.
Physician thought leadership is about positively positioning your practice in the mind of your target audience by providing value and expertise. It can be a successful strategy for reaching both patients and referral sources — just customize the topics and content to meet the needs of each audience.
As a bonus, incorporating this educational information regularly on your web site through a blog will also boost your search engine optimization (SEO) performance. And a final word of advice — be sure to track your efforts. Determine which content generates the most interest and engagement, and then look for ways to deliver more of that type of content.
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