Based on a PracticeCare® podcast conversation, David Telisman on Why Content Is Critical for Marketing, with David Telisman, founder of David Telisman Communications, a content writing and marketing firm with a niche in mental health clients.
Why should a practice owner bother creating new content?
Content shows your audience you care enough to make them smarter. When someone reads something and comes away feeling more informed, that builds a kind of trust that gets people to act.
Think of it this way: content is oxygen for a business. Without it, the public has no reliable way to know you’re out there, let alone what makes you worth choosing once they actually need what you provide.
What’s wrong with the templated blog content some marketing vendors sell?
Some healthcare and dental marketing companies give every client in a specialty the exact same blog post. Search that topic and you’ll find nine other practices in the same market running the identical article, word for word.
The entire point of content is to differentiate a practice from its competitors. A templated post does the opposite. On the surface it seems like a good deal because that content costs less. However, when you buy the same content as everyone else, you’ve just spent money to sound like everyone else. That’s actually a terrible deal! Why not spend a little more to sound like the unique practice you are?
Won’t a practice eventually run out of things to say?
No. Original content doesn’t require an original topic. The same subject can be written about endlessly because the audience, the angle, or what’s newly understood about it keeps shifting.
In healthcare specifically, research and best practices keep evolving, which means there’s always a new piece to write, even on a topic that’s already been covered many times over.
What about just using AI to write the content instead?
AI isn’t the enemy, but it isn’t a shortcut either. Using it well takes learning how to prompt it, keeping up with how fast the tools change week to week, and still running the actual practice on top of all that.
The bigger issue is that AI can’t replace the human element that makes someone choose one practice over another. It’s a tool to make you better, not a replacement of you.
Does content actually move the needle on traffic and visibility?
Yes, measurably. Blogging remains one of the top forms of content marketing, and the return on investment for practices that blog regularly keeps growing relative to those that don’t.
Website traffic spikes correspond directly to when new posts go out, and posts shared on LinkedIn or Facebook consistently get more views than days with nothing published. There are over 600 million active blogs today. A practice that isn’t one of them is handing that visibility straight to competitors who are.
How should a practice owner actually get started?
Start with a quick self-audit:
- Check the date on your most recent blog post, if you have one at all.
- Look at how active — or static — your LinkedIn presence has been.
- Take an honest look at whether your website looks like it hasn’t changed in years.
Then check your top three competitors’ blog pages the same way. If their most recent post is recent, they’re already more visible than you are.
A final note
The word “content” sounds vast and a little vague, so it’s easy to let it slide. But the test is simple: are you continuously telling people what you know and why it matters? If you’re not, someone in your market already is, and their blog has a more recent date on it than yours. Content is the plainest way to make sure people know about you before they’re even ready to choose you.
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