Every business needs to provide value. The value you provide on your website through your articles on healthcare will translate into trust. Once trusted, consumers (patients) then consider to purchase goods or services (make an appointment). Every successful business, brand and website is trusted. Is yours?
This post corresponds to our latest podcast episode of “Russ and Randy” – a podcast on Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing. We hope you like “Providing Value and Developing Trust.” You can find us on iTunes …and now, ReachMD.com!
Providing value is the key to every business model. Providing value such as answering a question, educating, providing a solution to a problem, etc. develops into trust. Think of the countless transactions you perform on a daily basis. Whether you are buying food, gas or at Costco, you are there because of the value you receive. Your grocery store is convenient and has fresh produce, the gas station has the cheapest prices and Costco gives you quality, pricing and quantity (probably not convenient location).
So, too, health providers must provide value to our readers if we have any hope of converting them to our next patient. Fortunately for us (healthcare), providing value is very, very easy.
Finding Value in Healthcare
We all provide value every day to our patients and probably overlook the value we provide. We diagnose and treat illness, but the type of value best translated for use on the web is our ability to educate about health and answer questions.
Providing educational content on your website, YouTube channel or social media provides tremendous value to your readers. Your educational articles, videos and presentations (dare we add podcast?) provide enormous value in whichever format you choose.
Be a Hero
Content coming from an authority, we healthcare providers, instantly has the most credibility and, therefore, carries the most value compared to other sources/authors on the web.
Readers looking for answers on the web are bombarded with information, some credible, some not so credible. Because of our degrees and positions we hold in our communities, we get instant credibility and when we provide our value for free, our believability and trustworthiness soars!
Credible information, given for free, provides the most value.
By the way, remember to distribute this information through your email list via a newsletter. The information you provide to your patients will continue to reinforce the trust your existing patients already have in you.
Trust is the Goal
Establishing trust in our readers is the goal on the Internet. We establish trust by providing valuable health related content.
Every time your information gets validated (proven to be true) as your readers continue to research, your trust builds. Eventually, you become a trusted source.
Think about your own patients. Every time you cure illness, you become more trusted. You are trusted because you made the correct diagnosis and recommended the correct treatment. Would you be as trusted if every time you were wrong?
On the web, your educational articles will resonate with readers as they continue to read other websites or articles from our colleagues. Every time another source validates your content…you become more trusted.
Once enough trust has been established, a consumer will make a purchase decision. In our case, our next prospective patient will make an appointment.
See you next week!
Find “Russ and Randy” on iTunes!
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All the best!
Russ…and Randy
Healthcare and Medical Internet Marketing
Healthcare’s Rx for Web and Social