Four pillars of a successful practice: 2. Attract new patients

For example, Writing Sample Analyzer uses syllable counts and sentence length to determine the average grade level of your material (http://sarahktyler.com/code/sam ple.php). And the Readability Calculator at http://www.online-utility.org/english/readability_test_and_improve.jsp is also useful. In general, these tools penalize writers for polysyllabic words and long, complex sentences. Your writing will score higher when you use simpler diction and write short sentences.

Educate, rather than advertise.

Blogs should be used to support your online marketing efforts and provide patients with important information about your practice and services. A blog is not designed to be an advertising tool. Using it as such a tool will cause readers to lose interest fast. If you think education first, your material will be attractive to readers and they may call your office for an appointment.

Some organizational pointers:

• Avoid lengthy blog posts; they can lose reader interest. Pages with a lot of white space are easier to scan and more likely to keep patients reading. Say enough to get your point across, but don’t lose your readers’ attention with irrelevant information.
• Include subheadings and bullet points every few paragraphs so readers can quickly browse your post for the information they want.

Provide fresh, unique content that is new and interesting. Offer advice and tips for improved health, and inform patients about new technology and treatments that are specific to your practice. For example, if you offer a noninvasive approach to a medical problem using a procedure that is new in your community, write a post on this topic and include a testimonial from one of your treated patients. This strategy is very effective at generating new patients.

Don’t let your content get stale

Post to your blog regularly, providing new and updated content. Once you develop an audience, keep them coming back by adhering to a schedule. Every update you make to your blog counts as fresh content—a significant factor search engines use to rank Web sites. I suggest that you consider blogging at a minimum of once a week.

We are in the age of social media. The social media train is leaving the station, and you better get on board. The easiest way to start is by creating and posting regularly on your blog site.

External marketing to attract new patients to your ObGyn practice basically consists of writing and speaking. If you want to market outside your practice, you need to think about putting your writing and speaking skills into action. So, speak up and get your pen or computer working!

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