Should Doctors Blog? Top 10 Reasons Practitioners and Medical Practices Should Consider Blogging

Blogging presents a considerable opportunity for healthcare professionals. When done correctly, applying on-page search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to medical blog writing can lead to effective healthcare marketing and powerfully improve a medical practice’s business in many ways.

Continue reading to learn more about the top ten reasons doctors should consider blogging to get the word out about their medical practice and to reach new patients. 

1. Increase online visibility

When looking for a doctor or an answer to a specific medical question, internet users patients turn to the web. 21% of participants in a Pew research study said they vet specific doctors or hospitals before scheduling any in-office appointments. (1)

2. Control your professional reputation

If you do not establish yourself online, then you are giving other people the power to control your professional narrative. As an example, when potential patients search for you, they could come across incorrect office hours. Furthermore, being invisible online makes it easier for other practices to take patients and spread potential misinformation.

3. Gain a loyal patient base and attract the patients you want

Increase patient loyalty and build an easily searchable, positive referral base online by writing on topics patients often ask you questions about. A blog also gives you a space to share patient testimonials. Furthermore, when healthcare professionals post testimonials with videos or images from a relatable patient, they tend to generate far more engagement with those blog posts because patients often re-share on their platforms. This effect is supercharged when testimonial blog posts are shared via your social media handles.

4. Improve current patient adherence

By blogging about recommended supplements or strategies to improve chronic conditions, you can passively encourage your patients to implement your recommendations, reinforcing adherence to treatment plans. For example, if a physician writes a post about vitamin D supplements, they can use Fullscript’s Embeddable Product Cards. The cards provide visual examples that make shopping on your online supplement dispensary just one click away.

5. Establish your ‘niche’ market

Nowadays, general listicles and overviews of topics have reached a saturation point. This presents you with an opportunity to establish your specialty and to find your niche online. For example, do you have an expertise in gut health? Then it makes sense to write blogs about specific topics all about gut and digestive health. When someone searches for a gut health doctor or related health information online, chances are, you’ll come up in the Google search results!

6. Keep up to date with the latest medical research

By writing blog posts on a regular basis on subjects your patients often ask you questions about, you naturally tend to stay up to date on the latest research. Staying up to date on all the latest research and health trends keeps you sharp.

7. Share blog post information on other platforms

These days, most people spend the majority of their time online using social media, and more and more medical professionals have Instagram accounts to share their more robust content. The content you put together on your own blog can be chopped down and shared via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, which can, in turn, drive high-quality social media engagement. You can also print out or email information from blog posts to your patients.

8. Improve communication skills through reflective writing

Writing can improve doctors’ and healthcare providers’ empathy and reflection, and reflective capacity and excellent bedside manner are vital for practitioners. The practice of strong communication skills in the medical profession is integral for the development of meaningful and trustworthy relationships between the doctors and patients and, thus, is beneficial to both of them. (2)(3)

9. Increase media coverage and appearance opportunities

When you write blog posts and establish yourself as an authority on the topic, there will likely be more opportunities and invitations sent to you by the media. You may be more likely to be asked to present at conferences and are more likely to be nominated and selected as a reward recipient.

10. Enjoy free advertising and passive income

Your blog functions as your advertising, only better. By sharing sound information with patients, professionals, and prospective patients alike, you have an opportunity to make money just from the number of eyeballs that read and share your blogs. Moreover, if your site has enough monthly visitors, there is a good chance you may attract more patients to grow your practice.

You can also make money from Google Adsense, by promoting a specific product through a branding partnership, or by using embeddable product cards to drive sales to an online supplement dispensary.

The bottom line

Understanding why doctors should blog and how it can help your medical practice, is how you will see value in spending time building and maintaining a blog. Get online, be active, and ensure your online presence pays off. 

Learn more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the importance of blogging, and on-page SEO on the Fullscript blog.