There is no Silver Bullet, but if there was, this would be it…

Growing your private practice is simple, but it is not easy.

If you want to grow your private practice, and pretty much all the doctors that I talk to, do (although I realise that this is a self-selected group), there is a very simple formula to follow.

It can be boiled down into one sentence.

Well it’s not even a sentence, it’s just two words really.

PRODUCE CONTENT

That’s it.

If you want to build your practice in this day and age, it is all about producing content.

There are lots of different types of content you can produce and lots of different ways that you can distribute your content

…and we can talk about the nuances of video vs audio or printed pamphlets vs PDFs,

but to be honest the bottom line is that you can test all of these things and work out the best for your particular practice, but at the end of the day, the final common pathway is that you need to be consistently producing quality content.

This takes time, energy and focus.

Which is something that most doctors don’t seem to have an appetite for when it comes to growing their private practice.

We are very happy to spend time in the clinic or in the library reading research papers, but less happy spending time writing a blog about the ‘5 common causes for palpitations’ or ‘7 best ways to treat knee pain’.

I think that some doctors expect me to produce a silver bullet and give them the secret to suddenly unlock hundreds of patients which will come knocking on their door.

The fact of the matter is that there probably are hundreds of patients who would come knocking on their door, but there is no silver bullet.

It takes energy and commitment to provide value and information to patients.

This is known as content marketing and is all about giving value and serving your patients rather than looking to promote your clinical services.

When you are giving advice and helping patients, you will be fulfilling your role as a doctor which is, after all, what we went into this for.

Medicine in the private sector is just the same as medicine in the NHS.

I think that some doctors have got the wrong idea about promoting your services or advertising your practice.

They think it is somehow shameful or unworthy

but everything that I talk about is all with the aim of giving patients a better service and allowing them to make a more informed decision.

Not in any way trying to encourage them to have a particular treatment.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again, marketing is good medical practice

…yet ‘marketing’ is a word that has a negative connotation with many doctors.

I enjoy helping other Consultants to build their private practice and if you want to talk about your practice, you can schedule a strategy call with me which is free with no obligation and I will be happy to give you advice and help if I can.