Most of what you’ve heard about content marketing for your private practice is, well, inaccurate.
Let’s jump right into it: the top 3 myths about content marketing for private practice.
Myth #1: Content marketing is about promoting your private practice.
Fact: Content marketing isn’t about you; it’s about your patients (both current and prospective). Thus, the content you feature on your website and on social media has to appeal to the specific needs and interests of your patients. Sure, at times, you’ll want to talk about yourself and what makes your private practice unique. But always be sure to bring it back around to a focus on the reader, your potential patient.
Myth #2: Your private practice needs to produce a ton of content in order to look authoritative.
Fact: It’s better to have a small amount of high-quality content, rather than a large quantity of average or subpar content. Authority doesn’t come from quantity, but from quality. You earn your patients’ trust by providing substantial and trustworthy information every time. Start by improving or redoing the content that’s already out there with your private practice name on it. Then make sure every new piece of content lives up to that standard, too.
Myth #3: Content is only effective when it goes “viral.”
Fact: Everyone seems obsessed with viral content these days, but no one seems to know how to “make” something “go viral.” That’s because you can’t actually force a phenomenon like viral sharing to happen just because you want it to happen. In truth, what makes content effective (and what sometimes, but not always, leads people to share it with others) is usefulness and relevance to the people who are reading it.
And these days, with all the pure BS on social media, remember YOU must stay in charge of where and what you publish for whom.