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Your Publishing Path: Choosing Between Traditional, Hybrid, or Independent Publishing

Getting published has never been more accessible, but that means your options can feel overwhelming. Traditional publishing’s monopoly on readers is over, and today, more than 300 million self-published books are sold every year. And the volume of self-published books has quadrupled in the last five years. 

All of that is to say that if you’re a new author, you’ve got options. But if you’re like my clients, you’re mystified by the publishing industry, and it’s unclear to you how to go from ideas to words, let alone words to books-on-shelves. You might be wondering. . .

  1. What’s the difference between traditional, hybrid, and independent publishing? 
  2. What should a first (or second, or third)-time author know before contracting with a publisher? 
  3. How can you know who to go to for publishing when the options on Google are overwhelming? 

If you’ve got any of these questions, you’re in the right place. Let’s start off by getting clear on the basic differences between traditional, hybrid, and independent publishing houses. 

Know Your Options: Traditional, Independent, Hybrid (And more?)

Here’s what you should know about the most common publishing routes, along with a simple table to help you compare them side-by-side. 

  1. Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishing has held all or nearly all of the market share historically because they were the only ones with enough funds to produce books. These firms remain a strong force in the industry, and they still hold prestige, because the process for getting your book selected is very competitive. Think: large publishing houses may look through hundreds of book proposals and manuscripts every year and only publish a dozen. 

Traditional publishing firms also prefer authors who have an established audience, or who have even already authored a few successful books. This is how they ensure that investing in your book will yield a high ROI for them; they make money off of your book selling. This model differs from hybrid and independent publishing, and we’ll talk about that later. 

For authors, the process for getting your book published with a traditional house is much longer than you might expect from a self-publisher or hybrid. Here’s what it looks like to get published with a traditional publishing house:

  1. Complete a book proposal (typically before writing your manuscript, or while you’re writing)
  2. Contract with a literary agent, who will pitch your proposal to publishers
  3. Wait for those publishers to get back to you (this will likely take several months)
  4. If your proposal gets accepted, you’ll sign a book deal which may include an advance (average advances are $3-5k)
  5. Write your manuscript and submit it to your publisher
  6. Send your manuscript through several rounds of edits through your publisher, these typically take a few months
  7. Your publisher will choose a cover design, jacket quotes, set you up with ISBNs, and other pre-publication tasks
  8. Your book gets published and you see books on shelves
  9. More book events, signings and marketing (usually at the author’s expense)

What I’d like you to notice about the traditional publishing process is how long it takes, and how much control your publisher has over your book’s content and presentation. On the other hand, you may like the prestige of being published this way, and you might not mind your publisher brandishing more power in the process. 

Another thing about traditional publishing is that your publisher will collect a higher share of royalties from your book’s sales. Expect to receive only 10-15% of book royalties on the back end of publishing. Traditional contracts are also more stringent and may include first refusal on your next book. Depending on the publisher, you’ll likely still need to foot the bill on book marketing, travel for speaking engagements, and other PR expenses surrounding your book release. 

Still, traditional publishing is a great option for authors who:

  • Are interested in the prestige of traditional publishing
  • Don’t mind that they won’t make as much money off of their book
  • Have a longer timeline for publishing (think: 1-2 years)
  • Dont mind giving up control over the content and presentation of their book
  • Already have an audience established 
  • Can fund additional book marketing efforts

That’s the lowdown on traditional publishing. It’s not for everyone, and the vast majority of books today are not traditionally published. So let’s talk about the other end of the spectrum; self-publishing. 

2. The Self-Publishing Route

Self-publishing has broadened access and helped give a voice to authors that aren’t represented in traditional firms. Authors who elect to self-publish retain full control over their content, cover design, and where their book is distributed. And self-publishing platforms mean that you don’t even have to go through a publishing house to distribute your book via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other e-book retailers. 

On the other hand, authors who elect for complete control over their book run the risk of publishing a finished product that doesn’t elevate their brand. And that can mean that you’ll put a ton of work into self-publishing without seeing the brand elevation you want.  

Self-publishing is a great option if you’re a DIY-er or you don’t want to spend much on getting your book published. At the same time, there’s a lot of tasks that you’ll need to get done (or have someone else do) before your book is ready. Here’s what the self-publishing process looks like:

  1. Write your manuscript, and go through rounds of line editing, copy editing, and proofreading. I recommend working with a professional editor 
  2. Either design your own cover or hire a designer to create one for you 
  3. Choose a self-publishing platform
  4. Format your design for the platform you chose, and create your metadata and book description
  5. Set your pricing and royalty options
  6. Upload your completed manuscript and book cover to your platform
  7. Market your book yourself, or hire a book marketing or PR firm for speaking engagements, TV segments, and social media promotions

Notice the range of tasks you’ll need to complete (or find someone else to complete) to get through the self-publishing process. The good news is that there are self-publishing firms that do all the hard stuff while making you look great. Self-publishing firms can get you set up with editors, book design, ISBNs, book reviews, and even book marketing. 

Self-publishing firms typically don’t collect any royalties, and they give the author a majority of creative control. They’re also much faster than traditional publishers; some can get your book on shelves in a matter of weeks. And that’s even faster if you’re publishing an e-book. 

Because they don’t collect royalties, self-publishing houses profit off of the authors who pay them to publish books. So unlike traditional publishing, you’ll pay the publishing house rather than them paying you. 

Rates for self-publishing with a firm start around $5k, but if you go the independent route, you can cut costs down to less than $1000. But beware, a cheap-looking book may not contribute to your brand the way you want it to. Self-publishing is still a great option for authors who:

  • Want to publish quickly
  • Want to control their content and covers
  • Have a budget they want to stick to
  • Have an existing audience to sell or give their book to
  • Are first-time authors experimenting with genre or writing
  • Want to collect as much royalties as possible

Self-publishing offers authors flexibility and control over their book, while traditional publishing may seem rigid and exclusive. Hybrid publishers are the best of both worlds. Let’s talk about this fresh publishing option. 

  1. Hybrid or Independent Publishers

With the best of both traditional and self-publishing, the more recent hybrid model gives authors more flexibility and control while keeping standards high. When you work with a hybrid firm, you get the expertise of editors, designers, and even marketers in-house, without waiting years to have your book reviewed and published.

Authors who use the hybrid route can expect a more collaborative process, and it’s sometimes called partnership or collaborative publishing for this reason. You’ll share the creative process, and the expenses of producing and distributing your book, with your publisher. 

Hybrid publishers make their money from a combination of author fees and shared royalties. This means they have more investment in your book selling than a self-publishing firm. It also means that, depending on the contract, authors may be expected to order a minimum number of books after publishing so that the firm can make back their investment. 

Here’s what the process may look like if you choose a hybrid publishing firm:

  1. Submit your edited manuscript. Some hybrid firms select only a small percentage of the manuscripts sent to them every year, so you’ll want to have a polished product before submitting. 
  2. If your manuscript is selected, you’ll enter into an Author-Publisher Agreement. Read this contract carefully; it’ll include details about financial contributions, distribution rights, marketing, and other obligations.
  3. The firm will professionally edit your manuscript, provide formatting, and create a cover design. The scope of these services will depend on the package and pricepoint you choose in your Agreement. 
  4. The hybrid publisher will handle production, distribution, and marketing to give your book the best launch possible
  5. After publication, you’ll split royalties with your hybrid publisher, and authors typically get 50-70%.  

Authors appreciate the professional support that hybrid publishing allows, and it’s a great way to get industry networks going in your favor. Hybrid publishing also creates a level of prestige and slectability, since publishers are more professional and don’t accept every manuscript. Hybrid publishers can also often help you with marketing, which is essential for a successful book launch. 

On the other hand, you may take on more financial responsibility with hybrid than in self-publishing. Before committing to a firm, do you due diligence to be sure they have a good reputation and transparent pricing. Carefully review your publishing agreement, and be sure you’re ready to take on the financial terms. And you’ll still need to do some of your own marketing for your book. 

Hybrid publishing may be right for you if. . .

  • You want a book that looks and reads professionally
  • You want to leverage industry expertise while editing, designing, and marketing
  • You’re interested in sharing control and costs with a publisher
  • You want to retain higher royalty rates, but you don’t mine some splitting
  • You can collaborate on marketing and promoting your book

Now that we’ve gone over the ins-and-outs of each approach, let’s look at one of my favorite things: a chart!

Which Publishing Path is Right for Me? Check Out This Chart

The path you choose will depend on your goals, vision, and budget. The folks I work with are best fit for self-publishing and hybrid, because they’ve got specific business goals in mind that they don’t want to wait years to accomplish. At the same time, they’ve got the budget to put professionals on the case, and create a book that impresses. 

If you’re still foggy on the differences between traditional, self-publishing, and hybrid publishing, check out this chart:

Traditional/In-house Self-publishingHybrid/Independent
Acquisition ProcessDifficult; very few manuscripts are accepted. Requires a book proposal and agentsEasy; anyone can be publishedVaries; some publishing houses select a small percentage of submissions
Timeframe1-2 yearsWeeks or monthsWeeks or months
AdvanceSometimesNo No
CostNoneAs little as $200$6000+
EditingIncluded in contract; typically several rounds of in-house editing before approval. You contract with an editorIn-house editors
ControlControl editing, formatting, design, book coverYou control editing, formatting, design, and book coverShared control over editing, formatting, design, and cover
Production & DistributionPublisher controls and covers costsYou control and cover costsShared control & costs
Marketing Costs & ResponsibilityPublisher may help with marketing and book eventsAuthor has control and takes on all costsPublisher may support marketing efforts
RoyaltiesAuthor gets 10-15%Author gets up to 100% of royalties depending on distribution choiceAuthor gets 50-70% of royalties

Traditional, self-publishing and hybrid publishing give authors more ways to get work out there than ever before. No matter your budget, timeframe, or platform, you can have your own book, and that’s pretty cool. 

But there is a difference between a book that is published and a book that is published and read. The influx of self-published books in the last decade have broadened access for writers, but that doesn’t mean those books are being read. The average book today only sells 200 copies. 

Even though publishing is easier than ever, rushing the process can still lead to a product that flops. We’ve all seen book covers with unprofessional designs, or started a book that we immediately trashed because the writing was bad. You don’t want to spend months of your life working on a book that doesn’t make you look amazing. 

Before starting on a book, get really clear on your goals. Who do you want to speak to? What opportunities do you want to have after publishing? What do you want life to look like in 3-5 years? A professionally written and distributed book can help you get there, but a rushed one probably won’t.

For many of my clients, booking more speaking engagements, consulting, and patient referrals are the key drivers behind starting a book. Keeping those targets in mind will help you make the right choice between traditional, self-publishing, and hybrid publishing. 


If you’ve got more questions about the publishing process, or you just want more consultation about which route is right for you, reach out to me at marie@mariehasty.com.

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What’s a White Paper? And Why Your Business May Need One

White papers, positioning papers, reports, and e-books: you may have heard each of these terms, but do you know what they mean or why they matter in the ecosystem of your marketing? These long-form pieces of content are ways to offer immense value to your audience while giving them an in-depth education about your product and services. But they’re not for everyone. Read on to learn more about white papers, and why your business may need one. 

If you’ve heard of white papers before, you might think of them as highly technical documents that are shared between businesses. And in some cases, that’s true. The core goal of a white paper is to give your audience more detailed information. It’s an opportunity to include research results, compile data from your case studies, and offer in-depth solutions.  

But that doesn’t mean that white papers are only for B2B businesses. Any business that offers a complex product or service might benefit from a white paper. I write white papers for medical companies that are offering something new to clinicians, patients, or other medical companies. 

I’m a nurse copywriter for businesses that are changing healthcare for the better. I help clients gain a foothold in the cutting-edge medicine industry, so that they don’t look at their competition 10 years from now and think “that should be me”. And white papers are one of the key strategies I like to use to help clients gain legitimacy and authority. 

Before we talk about why your business might consider a white paper, let’s talk about what they are, and the white papers you might already be using. 

What’s a White Paper?

A White Paper is a long-form, detailed sales page that helps businesses communicate the value of what they do. They’re about a specific problem and a specific solution. They may not seem like it, but white papers make an argument. They just do it using facts and data. 

But white papers come in a few forms, so let’s talk about where you might see one in the wild. 

The Different Forms of White Papers

You’ve probably already seen a white paper without knowing it. White papers can look like:

  • An e-book you download for free, that puts you on a mailing list about a product
  • A report on a business that you’re thinking about investing in
  • A PDF guide that shows you how to use a new product
  • A 10-page positioning paper that details a company’s mission, vision, and results 

Because they come in so many forms, there are a lot of ways to use a white paper. Many businesses use them to talk about:

  • Trends in their industry, 
  • Solutions that their brand offers,
  • Guides for their services or products, 
  • Insights into data and research, 
  • Educational step-by-step processes,
  • Challenges that their audience faces

Now that you know more about the content of white papers, let’s talk over a few scenarios when a business might use a white paper. 

When to Use a White Paper

White papers can help fill a gap in your medical marketing funnel, because they inform your audience and urge them to action. If you can’t get your clients to trust you enough to move to the next step, a white paper might be a good solution. 

Let’s get into some of the most common reasons my clients look for white papers:

Seeking Legitimacy & Authority

White papers are a valuable option for building authority if your company is:

  • In the startup phase
  • Actively looking for partners
  • Raising VC investments
  • Offering a product or service that is new, and therefore less trusted
  • Pivoting your offer to a new audience

A white paper helps you gain legitimacy, even if you haven’t been in business for long. Startups often use them to start building trust with investors and partners. They’re also super valuable if your service is relatively new to your industry. 

But authority-building isn’t the only reason you may want a white paper for your business. Let’s talk about white papers as a lead-generation strategy. 

Building an Email List

A white paper or e-book is an excellent tool if you want to grow a list of subscribers to your business. When they’re used in this way, white papers are sometimes called an opt-in or lead magnet. 

Email lists are a great tool in your marketing arsenal because they’re a way to build an audience in a more personal way than just your online followers. A person gets on your email list, and if you keep providing value, you’ll nurture them for your future offers. So when you build that course or create a new service, you’ve got an immediate list of people who already know you, like you, and trust you. 

But first, they need a reason to give you their email. That’s where an e-book or white paper comes in. Businesses may make an e-book to help their audience solve a problem, or to show them how their product works. And the great thing about this system is that it’s usually set-it-and-forget-it; you can keep growing your list without investing in ads. 

There’s another good reason why businesses might use a white paper. Maybe you’ve been getting more questions about your product, or it’s not clear to your audience how you can solve their problems. 

Answering Questions About Their Product

Businesses may also need a white paper if they’re meeting confusion from their audience. Maybe you keep getting the same question over and over on your sales calls. Maybe your audience has a new problem they keep coming to you with. White papers are a way for you to help your clients gain information, and gain their trust in you along the way. 

But what if your company is one of many in your industry? That’s another reason why a white paper could help you gain traction. 

Positioning Companies Within an Industry

White papers can help you stand apart from the competition, because you’re helping your audience in specific ways, with specific problems. And even though many people think that these documents are mostly technical and boring, they’re still a way to communicate your unique voice, mission, and aim. 

A white paper may be especially valuable if there aren’t many (or any) in your niche. For example, even though psychedelic medicine has grown so much in the last few years, there’s only one notable white paper in the space. So if you’re a smaller psychedelic medicine company, investing in a white paper can get you see a lot faster than just publishing blogs or newsletters. 

White papers have come a long way in the last few years. They’re not just for executive reports and charts. They’re also for getting people excited about what you do. 

Explaining the Value of a Service/Product

Sometimes a white paper is also called a positioning paper. These are usually longer than standard reports, often 10-20 pages. They go in-depth into the problems in a specific industry, the way other companies have tried to solve them, the ways they’ve failed, your solutions, and how great those solutions are. 

Positioning papers can be massively valuable for companies that are trying to position themselves with shareholders and partnerships who may not have heard of them. Startups often use positioning papers to make their value clear before they have high earnings reports and real-world proof of concept. They’re a way to help people learn why they should be excited to work with you. 

Gaining authority, building an email list, answering questions, positioning, and explaining value are just some of the ways a professional white paper can be an asset to your medical marketing strategy. But where does a white paper fit into the marketing strategy you already have? How can you make sure that people will read your white paper once it’s finished? Let’s answer these questions. 

Where to Put a White Paper in Your Medical Marketing Funnel

If you haven’t read my blog on medical marketing funnels, check it out. If you have, I’m very impressed. One thing I emphasize when I talk strategy with clients is to think about the steps that your clients will move through your funnel, and give them enough information to move to that next step every time. 

A white paper is an excellent way to give them that information. Check out this step-wise funnel that includes a white paper:

Notice the key step that the white paper solves; without a free e-book someone might come to your blog, read an article or two, and then lose interest because you’re not immediately solving their problem. A white paper helps you offer value right off the bat, so that people move more easily through the steps of your funnel. 

This is just one way that a white paper may fit into the marketing ecosystem you’re already using. But how can you get your white paper out to readers?

Create a Landing Page for your White Paper

My favorite way of distributing a white paper is to put it on your website via a landing page. You can link to this landing page from your new blogs, your newsletter, and your social media pages. It’s this page that helps people understand why your report is valuable, and how to get it using their email address. 

But this isn’t the only way to disseminate your white paper once it’s done. There are some people you’ll want to offer this report to immediately, without making them give over their email. 

Email Your White Paper to Your Existing Subscribers

If you already have loyal subscribers, you certainly don’t want to leave them out of the value you’ve made with a white paper. You can send them this report directly with a link to a PDF, or a private page on your website. 

Your email list is one audience you don’t want to leave out, but neither are your social media followers. 

Link Your White Paper on Social Media

If you have social media accounts for your business, you’ll probably want to share the landing page for your white paper with them. That way they can sign up for your email list, which is a much more intimate following than your public pages. 

Create a Lead-In Blog

If you want to give readers a taste of your white paper without giving them the whole pie, a lead-in blog is a great option. I sometimes call this a white paper-lite article. You might provide some of the information from your report, or summarize the findings without giving away all the juicy details. This way you can attract readers with a search engine and get them interested. 

White paper landing pages, emails, social media links, and blog lead-ins are all great strategies to make sure your white paper actually gets read once it’s made. But is a white paper for you?

White Papers: Who Needs Them (And Who Doesn’t)

White papers are a fabulous tool if you’re communicating about a service that is complex, innovative, or not well-known. But not every company needs them. 

For example, if you sell a relatively low-ticket item, a free report on that product might be an unnecessary investment on your part. White papers aren’t cheap, and if they won’t make your sales easier, you’re better off investing in something else like paid ads. 

If you’re unclear on who your target audience is, or what problem you’re helping them solve, a white paper isn’t a good option yet. Keep in mind that these reports are very specific and tailored to an audience. So if you don’t know who that audience is, a white paper isn’t the right thing yet. 

Murky waters won’t make for a clear white paper. It’s essential to be clear on your audience, their pain points, and your value offer before you think about a white paper. 

Thinking About a White Paper? 

Has this blog made you curious about a white paper, e-book, or report for your business? I write white papers for medical businesses that are making positive changes in medicine and healthcare. 
If you’ve got specific questions about white papers, I’d love to answer them! Email me at marie@mariehasty.com to talk more about how a white paper could help your business grow.

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4 Things that Surprised Me About the Ethics of Medical Marketing

When I moved into medical copywriting from nursing, I knew I had a lot to learn. But I thought my days of hard ethical decisions were over. As an inpatient nurse, I dealt with moral conflicts and ethical injury. But as a marketing consultant and copywriter, I still lean on medical ethics in surprising ways. Here are 4 things that surprised me about the ethics of medical marketing. 

I worked on a heart failure unit, then COVID step-down, and the Medical Intensive Care unit before being a full-time copywriter. In each of these settings, I dealt with daily ethical issues. Many revolved around patients and their families. It’s hard for families to understand the limits of modern medicine, and I was often given impossible tasks. 

These impossible tasks typically involved torturing patients with medical interventions, despite a low probability of recovery. 

In my first week off of orientation on our tele unit, I came into my 96-year-old patient’s room to find that he wasn’t breathing. One of our health techs threw me the backboard, and the charge nurse yelled “start pumpin’!”. Despite the whole team knowing that he had dementia and likely wouldn’t recover, we had to break his ribs and intubate him to try to keep him alive. 

We didn’t talk about it in the hospital, but medical experts call this “moral injury” [1]. It’s a term I learned from my Mom, who trains hospital chaplains. It’s a precursor for post-traumatic stress disorder, which can happen after a person’s trust and beliefs are threatened. In that scenario, I believed that the patient would have suffered less if we had let him die. And because I had to go against that belief, my trust in my practice was rocked. 

When I made the switch to medical marketing and copywriting full-time, I thought my days of moral injury were over. And I’m so thankful to not be traumatized in my work anymore. But I still lean on my nursing ethics, my medical experiences, and my own moral code to be sure I’m helping people, not hurting them. 

Copywriting is a powerful tool. It amplifies, spreads messages, and motivates people to take action. And I want to use those tools for good. 

The first way I’ve learned to be ethical in my work is by making the right decisions from the start. And sometimes, this means passing on a client who isn’t a good fit for my own code of ethics. 

1. Ethical Marketing Starts with Saying “No”

For me, the first step to feeling good about my work is choosing my clients carefully. This is a skill that I’ve learned the hard way — through working with clients that I realized I didn’t align with. 

For newer copywriters, it’s easy to ignore your gut. You want the notch on your belt of another client, you want those first testimonials. And the fact that someone is in front of you, offering to pay you to write, can be very persuasive. All those motivations can make it tempting to ignore a funny feeling that tells you your client isn’t right for you. 

Now, I know copywriters who have been directly misled by a client, and thankfully I’ve never had that experience. But I have learned that there are some areas of medicine that I’m just not super interested in promoting. 

For example, some telehealth companies fragment care and try to maximize clinician productivity while minimizing pay. I’ve realized that I no longer want to work with clients who are re-packaging the same problems that already exist in medicine. That decision comes down to my own experiences as a clinician.

Another example of clients that I’m picky about is chiropractors. Now don’t get all up-in-arms, because I know a lot of people love their DCs, and many of them are great. But there are higher rates of scammy promotions and treatments within the chiropractic specialty than any other. Chiropractors have been flagged by CMS for providing medically unnecessary services [2]. And while the field has made inroads in implementing evidence-based practices, many chiropractors still have a ways to go [3]. 

My own marketing ethics come down to my personal experiences, my medical knowledge, and my own learning as a nurse. But just because I don’t want to write for a niche or specialty, doesn’t necessarily mean I think it’s all-bad. Which brings me to the second thing that surprised me about marketing morals. . .

2. Marketing Ethics Isn’t Black-and-White

When I started writing for companies, I really thought that marketing ethics were the same across the board. Don’t mislead people, don’t lie, and don’t be gross. Sounds easy right? 

But the truth is that what one copywriter thinks is truth, another may think is misleading. A sales tactic that I find gross is the backbone of someone else’s business (lookin’ at you, network marketing).

There are some genuinely scammy marketers out there who don’t really care about what they’re selling as long as they hit their sales goals. But for the most part, I think we’re all just doing the best with what we know. 

After doing this work for a few years, I’ve learned that marketing ethics is different for everyone. A treatment or method that I don’t want to write about might be appealing to another copywriter, and that’s okay. Marketing ethics, just like medical ethics, is all shades of gray. I know that many people won’t align with my morals, but I try to work with people who see the world in similar shades. 

You’re probably wondering, “what does your version of marketing ethics look like?”, because you’re curious like that. Here’s what medical marketing ethics looks like for me:

  • I use the latest research to consider a treatment or stance before I write about it. This helps me make sure I’m being truthful to the audience I’m writing for, rather than contributing to undue hype and misinformation. 
  • I don’t push people towards a sale that they don’t need or want. In my business, this looks like giving clients options that fit (and don’t exceed) their needs, or making changes to our plan if their budget changes. 
  • I want to be helpful, not contribute to the noise. People are inundated with messages to “buy now!” and “purchase before they’re gone!”. It might not sound very market-ey, but leading with value helps me know that I’m not just adding to the advertising noise we all go through daily. 

Being truthful, acting with integrity, and leading with value are a few broad ways that I try to make the world better with my work rather, than worse. After all, I’m a nurse first, and I carry nursing philosophies with me along with marketing ones. As a clinician myself, I have my own moral compass that I follow in my business. 

That leads me to the next thing that surprised me about medical marketing ethics. . .

3. I Don’t Agree with Some Clinicians, and That’s Okay

When I first started my business, I thought everyone knew more than me. And I still think a lot of people do. Hell, everyone knows more than me about something. 

But the more experience I get, the more comfortable I am with leaning into my own judgment. The more I learn, the more I can trust my knowledge base, and come to conclusions for myself. And sometimes the ethical conclusions I arrive at are different from other clinicians, and that’s normal. 

For example, I know many clinicians still swear by the keto diet. I think the market of content on keto is saturated, especially since it can be medically unnecessary and unhealthy. I don’t want to write about keto diets, but I know a lot of copywriters who do. Just because I don’t agree with a clinician doesn’t mean I think they’re wrong to market their work. 

The knowledge and experiences I’ve had shape my beliefs, and I know we’re all living different lives. So it makes sense that we’d come to different conclusions sometimes. I write for clients whose views I agree with because I feel good doing it, and because I probably wouldn’t write well for a treatment I don’t believe in. 

A core value in medical ethics is patient autonomy. That means that my work isn’t in making patients choose one treatment over another. It’s in researching, pointing out the pros and cons, and helping people make more informed decisions for themselves. 

I’m always looking for more to learn, and my own beliefs change with time and information. That’s another thing that’s suprised me about this work. . .

4. My Marketing Moral Code is Always Shifting – And That’s a Good Thing

When I first started writing, I thought that my ethics would be the same month-to-month, and year-to-year. But over the last three years, I’ve gotten more stringent in my own moral marketing code. And several of my beliefs in medicine have changed, based on new evidence I’ve seen.

Even though I don’t practice clinically anymore, I still live, work, and breathe medicine. I love listening to podcasts about health and wellness, and I’m usually in the middle of a medical or marketing book. And the stuff I’ve learned has changed the way I think about the ethics of medical marketing. 

Check out how content has shifted my medical marketing ethics in the last few years:

Maintenance Phase is a podcast that goes into the history of wellness trends and treatments, and the pitfalls of fatphobia in medicine. Fatphobic views were baked into my nursing school education and my experiences as an inpatient nurse. This podcast has taught me so much about the experiences of fat people, the murkiness around research into BMIs, “obesity” medicine, and the awful ways that fat people are treated by clinicians. 

Because of what I’ve learned on Maintence Phase, I write for clinicians who approach health from a weight-positive stance. I’m not interested in pushing dietary changes that are not evidence-based. I also feel pretty strongly that most supplements are either worthless or harmful.

If you’re interested in learning about pop-medicine myths, check out Maintenance Phase on their website. 

Psychedelic Support is a client I worked with throughout 2022. When their CEO approached me, I didn’t know anything about psychedelic-assisted therapy. And I felt generally leery of what seemed like a silicon valley bro-trend. But I did a ton of research into the evidence, and quickly learned that my initial feelings were un-informed.

One of the best parts of my job is getting to dive into current research to find evidence for my content. And while writing for Psychedelic Support, I learned so much about psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, LSD, and ayahuasca-assisted therapy. Psychedelic-assisted therapy is fascinating, and I now know that it’s so much more than a trend. 

I also learned about an important distinction, especially within the world of ketamine clinics. From the outside, ketamine infusion centers and ketamine therapy centers may look the same. But there are really important distinctions between them. They’re run by providers with very different backgrounds (anesethesia vs. psychiatry & therapy), and patients will come out with very different experiences. 

Because of my work with psychedelic support, I’m not interested in writing for ketamine infusion centers that don’t provide a direct referral or follow-up for integration therapy. It’s an essential part of the ketamine therapy process, one that’s supported by the data and the patient experiences I’ve seen. 

I’m guessing you also absorb a lot of medical content, which changes your beliefs and views over time. It’s the beautiful thing about learning as we go. When we know better, we do better. 

What’s Surprised You About Marketing Your Business?

Since starting out as a copywriter almost three years ago, I’ve learned a lot. Good marketing ethics is a moving target, and we can’t be expected to get it right every single time. But the point is to keep learning, and keep being thoughtful about the way we speak to customers. 

Has reading this article made you think about marketing ethics in your practice? What about ways that you’ve been surprised in your business? I’d love to hear what you think, even if you disagree with my ethical takes. 

To chat with me, shoot me an email at marie@mariehasty.com. 

References

  1. Williamson, V., Murphy, D., Phelps, A., Forbes, D., & Greenberg, N. (2021). Moral injury: The effect on mental health and implications for treatment. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(6), 453–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(21)00113-9
  2. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. (n.d.). MEDICARE NEEDS BETTER CONTROLS TO PREVENT FRAUD, WASTE, AND ABUSE RELATED TO CHIROPRACTIC SERVICES .
  3. Lefebvre R, Peterson D, Haas M. Evidence-Based Practice and Chiropractic Care. J Evid Based Complementary Altern Med. 2012 Dec 28;18(1):75-79. doi: 10.1177/2156587212458435. PMID: 23875117; PMCID: PMC3716373.
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A Clinician’s Guide to Sales Funnels (That Won’t Make You Feel Gross)

Most of the doctors, PAs, NPs, and medical leaders I talk to hate sales. They got into medicine to take care of patients and make healthcare better, not to market themselves. They’re not here for the slimy salesman mumbo-jumbo. So when I start talking about client acquisition as a sales funnel, their eyes glaze over. But it’s important to think about your client’s journey, so you can make it better. Let’s talk about what a basic funnel strategy is, and go over some in-depth examples of medical sales funnels.

Here’s a mindset shift I want to pose: in cutting-edge medicine, good sales funnels can improve patient outcomes. Because you’re not selling snake-oil here, you’re making a real difference for the folks you see. Sales funnels just channel people towards your office, while weeding out the ones who don’t need your work. 

If your services are the real deal, marketing and sales funnels just tell people how great they are. No slime involved. 

The practitioners I work with are giving life-changing results for their patients. Yet they’re only seeing a trickle of new referrals. They know that they can help more people, but they’ve got to get them through the door first. Here’s what a sales funnel is, why you need one, and how to build one yourself. 

What is a Sales Funnel?

“Sales funnel” is a visual aid that helps us picture the customer journey. The funnel metaphor just helps you visualize how your business turns people who have never heard of you into paying clients or patients. Here’s the funnel visual we’ve all seen before: 

Here’s the thing: if you’ve already got patients, you already have a sales funnel. 

Part of my job as your copywriter is to think about your copy in this three-dimensional sense, so that we can fill in gaps and make it easier for people to move from one stage to the next. No piece of copy or content exists in a vacuum; it all needs to contribute to leading people down your funnel. But I actually have a different visual aid that I use to help me strategize the journey that your prospects go on. Check out my step-wise approach:

What I like about this visual is that it’s more specific than a funnel, and it takes the client’s experience and level of trust into account. Because the more touchpoints they have with you, the more they trust you, and the more they’re willing to pay to continue working with you. And it makes you get clear on how you’re helping people move upwards through your CTAs, or Calls to Action. 

At the top of your funnel is your highest value offer. Not everyone will get there because not everyone is going to need that level of support. And that’s okay. The step model helps you build in lower-level value offers so that it’s easier to help clients ascend. And not every person needs to go to your highest level of care in order to get value out of interacting with you. 

That brings me to a question I get asked a lot, which is “what should I do to bring in more patients?”. Let’s talk about the elements of a doctor’s funnel. 

Your Bare-Bones Medical Marketing Funnel

If you’ve only recently started your practice, you’re probably stuck between a rock and a hard place. You haven’t got much of a budget for marketing your business, so you can’t afford to bring on a big agency. At the same time, you need patients to start coming in so you can keep the lights on. Does that sound familiar?

This is often the place where I come in, because I’m less expensive and more specialized than most medical marketing agencies. Here’s the plan that I recommend the most to new medical practices:

  1. Build a website (it doesn’t have to be fancy). I’ve spoken to so many clinicians who dropped $10k+ on their first website, only to not love it or change their specialty a few years in. A wordpress or squarespace site may run you about $300/year. And if you get me to write all your pages, you’ll know you’re set up for SEO success. Check out my guide on website essentials.
  1. Start a referral promotion, and send it out to your contacts. This is as simple as a sign in your office, or a quick note at the bottom of your email signature. Offer a $5 Starbucks gift card for clients who refer you to someone else. 
  1. If you’ve got time, get to blog writing. I’ve found that regular content creation is the best way to bring traffic to your site in the long term. Especially in cutting-edge medicine, where thought leadership gets your message out there. The problem that most clinicians run into is that they write a few blogs and don’t get any new visitors, and then get discouraged and stop. SEO-optimized content creation is a long game. It pays off much better than paid ads, but it takes somewhere between 4-6 months to work. 
  1. Eventually, start a newsletter. Building a listing of subscribers has so many benefits for innovative physicians. An emotional welcome sequence helps readers see who you are, what you do, and why to come to you. Ongoing informational messages show them they can trust you. And sometime down the line when you get an affiliate partnership or create a course? You’ve got a growing group of people who are already warm to you.

Notice the marketing elements that I left out of this strategy. Social media promotions might mean an ego boost, but I’ve found that “likes” don’t often become patients. Most of my clients have a slim social media following, even as their businesses are overflowing with clients. I only write social media posts in tandem with blogs, so if you’re trying to become an instagram influencer, I’m probably not the copywriter for you. 

A website, referral program, blog, and newsletter are a super basic funnel that can start bringing in patients if you’re just starting out. Let’s see what these elements look like in our step-wise model:

This is a great base-bones funnel, but you might notice it has fewer steps than my earlier example. And there aren’t many ways for you to connect with potential clients. Many people will fall off the funnel at your website, because they don’t have enough trust built to schedule a call. 

There are a lot of ways that I might build out this funnel to make your business’ steps easier to ascend. An opti-in offer like a $5 e-book helps make sure you’re reaching the right people, and gives them immediate value with a low barrier to entry. And it gets them on your email list, where you can introduce yourself and show what sets you apart from other providers. 

The great thing about starting these systems now is that they grow in value over time. If you start a blog now, and post consistently, you’ll be seeing 50+ referrals a month in half a year. If you start an email list now, you could have hundreds or thousands of warm leads for when you come up with your next patient offer. 

If you’re looking for more than bare-bones, what could your funnel look like? Let’s take a look at some medical funnel examples. 

Examples of Medical Sales Funnels

I hope I’ve got you thinking about the journey your clients go on from being strangers to patients. Let’s say you’ve got a ketamine therapy practice. Here’s what your step-wise funnel might look like:

Notice how many steps there are in this funnel. If you’re a ketamine therapist and this is your funnel, you have three different paid offers, and each offer leads people up into the next one. 

One of the beautiful things about funnels like this that don’t rely on paid ads is that they tend to be set-ii-and-forget-it. You can have me write an e-book for your practice and still be using it as a lead-generation tool in ten years. Your email welcome sequence is the same way. Once systems like these are set up, you get to reap the benefits for years to come. 

Let’s look at another step-wise funnel example, this time for a medical business that sells to other medical businesses. 

B2B Medical Sales Funnel

If you’re selling a service or product to administrators, office managers, or physicians, you’ll still be using the step-wise funnel. But your steps might be a little different. B2B contracts are higher-ticket and typically involve less emotional sales decisions. So instead of an e-book, you might use a white paper. Instead of a 

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you’re a medical equipment business that sells highly sophisticated at-home telemetry monitors that fit within a chronic care management system. Here’s what your step-wise B2B funnel might look like:

B2B purchases are made with more data and less emotion (although there’s definitely still emotion involved in sales). That means that touchpoints in a B2B sales strategy will likely be more evidence-based and professional.

Your Business Stepwise Funnel

Now that you’ve seen some step-wise funnel examples, get out a pen and paper. It’s time to think about the journey that people go on as they move through the levels of value in your business. If stages of your funnel are blank, that’s okay! Now you know where you can focus your efforts to make it easier for people to move to your next level of value. 

Do you have questions about what your current funnel looks like, and how you can make it better? Email me!

How to Make Your Private Practice Website Work for You

The website is the storefront of the 21st century. It shows people right off the bat who you are, what you do, and who you do it for. But what are practical strategies to make sure your website is helping your business? In this week’s blog, let’s talk about how to make your private practice website work for you. 

Why should I care about my private practice website? 

Maybe you have a strong Facebook group for your practice, or thousands of Instagram followers. Maybe you’ve had lots of success with ads, TikTok, or Youtube. Maybe your practice has thrived off of word-of-mouth and referrals. If you’ve had traction with any of these avenues, you may wonder why you should even worry about your website. You’re already getting patients, right?

Think about it this way: your website is yours. TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook could go down tomorrow, and if you’re totally reliant on followers or groups, you’ve lost your audience. Chances of that might be slim, but unless you’re funneling folks to your own site, you’re at the mercy of Zuckerberg. 

Another thing to consider is that wherever you put your content, you’re adding to that business. Posts to instagram add to their content web, not yours. People are reading your words on their platform, liking posts on their feed. 

I’m not saying you shouldn’t post to social media, but that your posts should be strategic. They should funnel people to your website, blog, opt-in list, or landing page. They should be benefiting your business, not just adding to the content chaos. 

Referral clients are great, but they can also often be unpredictable. Relying solely on your existing client network can leave you in a feast-or-famine pattern that isn’t sustainable for the long term. Investing in your own website helps assure you against slow periods, which can happen when word-of-mouth dries up. 

Your website should be the backbone of your marketing. 

Having a strong website to send people to gives your business independence from social media. It also should generate inbound leads so that you’re not depending on erratic word-of-mouth for business. A strong site brings people in, where they can learn more about you and sign up for your services. It showcases your knowledge, skills, and expertise. 

Now that you know why its so important, let’s get into how to make your private practice website work for you.

How to Cater Your Website for Google

You probably know about SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO just means that we’re trying to make Google’s algorithms work for your site. Marketers and copywriters try to guess at what will satisfy Google’s algorithms, but these algorithms are not published and change constantly. 

But did you know that Google actually looks at medical websites differently than others? In March of 2021, John Mueller of Google Switzerland confirmed that medical sites with low expertise and authority were knocked down in search rankings. 

With the plethora of misinformation and low-credibility medical sites out there, this is actually a good thing for real practitioners. It means that there’s less muck medical content on the first page of Google, misinforming consumers about ivermectin treating COVID-19. 

Here’s my take: Medical content should be held to higher standards, because bad medical advice has real negative outcomes for the public. 

It’s great that Google is trying to weed out the bad apples. But you need to be sure your website looks shiny, crisp, and fresh (AKA: a good apple). 

You need to make your credibility unquestionable to show Google that you’re a good source of information. 

Here’s How to Show Google That Your Private Practice is The Real Deal:

A Strong ‘About Me’ page

As a medical practitioner, you’re not just selling your services, you’re selling yourself. People should read this page and think “I want to trust them with my health”.

SEO-wise, your ‘About Me’ page is a tool for building your clout with Google. It’s the place to list your educational background, your licenses and certifications, your professional memberships and previous experience. It’s also a great spot to list your press coverage and speaking edgagements. 

This is not the time to skimp, but it doesn’t have to be essay-length either. 400 words is usually more than enough to show people, and Google, that you’re an authority.

Client Reviews and Testimonials

Social proof is a huge part of how we make decisions, and your website is the time to use it. Peppering your site with glowing testimonials shows Google you’re experienced and trustworthy. This is not the time to be humble! 

If you have trouble asking for patient testimonials, automate the process. In your visit paperwork, ask patients to leave a Google review after their appointment. Some practitioners even offer a small gift card as an incentive to leave reviews when they’re just starting out. These are great ways to jump-start your testimonials bank and build social proof. 

Professional Social Media Engagement

Didn’t she just say that social media isn’t a good long-term lead strategy? 

Yes, yes I did. But it can be a great component of your SEO game if you use it right. 

Here are some practical ways to use social media as a tool for your business:

  • Promote your new products and services to your existing followers by funneling them to a professional landing page on your website
  • Ask questions of your followers to understand what is important to them and create content that meets their needs
  • Post about your weekly blog on LinkedIn or Facebook to drive traffic and improve SEO
  • Follow other medical influencers in your niche for inspiration and content ideas

If you love using social media, I am not here to burst your bubble. It can be a great tool to grow your practice and build an audience. 

But just remember that ‘likes’ don’t fill your calendar up with patients. Your social media activity should serve a purpose for your business, not a platform’s. 

Contact Us 

This is a remarkably simple, yet overlooked piece of medical SEO. I can’t tell you how often I go on a provider’s website, only to find that there’s no way to get in touch with them. 

Listing your contact information at the footer of every page is quick and easy. People shouldn’t have to hunt down your business email or phone number. Plus, it shows Google that you’re trustworthy. 

Google Business Profiles and Local SEO

Google Business is another easy way to become visible in local searches. According to Google, local searches drive 63% of local traffic. This is especially important for medical providers because your clients tend to be local. 

Plus, this gives you access to analytics so you can see what keywords people are using to find you. Use these keywords to create blogs, posts, and webpages to grow your SEO. 

Including your location in your website is also key for local SEO. It’s much easier to rank for “Dietician in Charlotte” than it is for “dietician”. Showing your location helps you show up for people in your area. 

Schedule Valuable Content

Creating a content schedule for your website is the first step to leveling up your practice website. By laying out a plan for blogs, videos, infographics, and more, you’re giving yourself a roadmap for growth. 

These pieces should be valuable for your audience. They should be backed in science, in your experiences as a clinician. Use scholarly sources and trustworthy backlinks to reinforce your authority. Your content should also be optimized for search engines, to make it easy to find. 

Sticking to a schedule shows Google that you’re trustworthy. That you’re going to show up for people again and again. That you have real value to offer for people who come to your site. 

The Essential Functions of a Private Practice Website:

In the last two years we’ve gone more ‘online’ than ever. Even for important decisions, like choosing a physician, we’re going to Google. By building your website with Google in mind, you drive more leads to you and grow your business for the long-term. 

At minimum, your website should: 

  • Show who you are, what you do, where you do it, and who you do it for
  • List and promote your services 
  • Differentiate you from other practitioners in your area
  • Build audience trust by providing value
  • Show people how to contact you

But Here’s the Thing About Updating Your Website. . .

You’re busy!

Practitioners are stretched thinner than ever these days. Expecting yourself to sit down and write a webpage after a long day of seeing patients is a lot. And it’s probably not even the best use of your time.

Being a medical entrepreneur means creating a business around your strengths. The things that light you up. Whether it’s seeing patients get their lives back after battling disease, watching families grow, or helping clients overcome mental illness. You get to create a practice that suits your strengths. And it’s okay if writing is not one of those strengths.

What could be a better use of your time than content creation? You can make your private practice website work for you without actually doing any work yourself.

Hiring a professional medical copywriter can save you time and mental bandwidth that you can give back to your patients, your family, or even yourself.

Curious about what a medial copywriter can do for your practice or medical business? Check out my blog about it.

If you have questions about my services or would like to work together to build the website of your dreams, contact me here:

Contact Me

How Can a Medical Copywriter Help My Private Practice?

Many private practice docs have a big, gaping blindspot in their practice. They can deliver comprehensive physicals, innovative therapies, and deep patient relationships. They’ve got long waiting lists and happy clients. Yet they don’t see how marketing their practice could help them create the future they really want for themselves and their business. In this week’s blog, we’ll answer the question: how can a medical copywriter help my private practice?

A lot of physicians I speak with emphasize “old-fashioned medicine” in their business. They have long patient appointments, they create lasting relationships with families, and they may even go into patient homes. I love this style of medicine, and it’s a model I really believe in. But practicing medicine as an old-fashioned family doctor shouldn’t mean marketing like an old-fashioned doctor. 

Medicine has always been based on trust. Your patients trust you to deliver them the best level of care possible. That’s why building trust in your brand is even more important in private practice medicine. Because you’re not asking your patients to buy your product or services. You’re asking them to trust you with their lives. 

So first, let’s talk about trust. 

Medical Copywriting for Private Practice Trust-Building

For all brands, building trust is just as important as building your brand image. The two really go hand-in-hand. In small-practice medicine, trust is even more important. You can’t leverage the brand trust of a big hospital, yet your patients need to trust that you can manage their whole health. While you offer personalized care plans, real relationships, and preventative care, a patient will never give your services a chance without the initial trust to get them in the door.

According to a 2017 report, the factors with the greatest influence on patient satisfaction are brand image, sincerity of staff, interactions with physicians, and positive rapport. But without the first thing, they’ll never even experience the rest. Your audience deserves to experience high-quality medicine. By neglecting to build a trustworthy brand, you may be losing great patients. 

But how can medical copywriting help build trust? 

I’m so glad you asked! 

Building trust in medical copywriting means showing health consumers that you care about what they care about: themselves. By making it clear that you’re here for them, you’re also making it clear that you can bring real value to their lives. 

1. Consistency

Medical copywriting can give your brand consistency. By using a readable, approachable tone that is the same across all your content, you help your audience know what to expect from you. It shows who you are and what you care about, day in and day out. Continuing to show up through blogs, newsletters, videos, and web pages shows them you’re serious. 

Big hospital systems are notoriously inconsistent. Long wait times and short visits and  out-of-pocket costs despite insurance. Folks who are tired of being jerked around by these systems come to you for a new standard of care. By showing them your consistency and dedication through your online brand, you display your unique value and commitment.

2. Transparency

Good medical copywriting is clear and concise. It cuts through the jargon and shows your audience you’re meeting them on their level. Modern medical consumers are more savvy than ever before. They expect to be educated on their options. They want to make decisions for themselves and feel empowered to make the right ones. 

If you’re in private practice, your patients are probably coming to you tired of receiving suboptimal care from big hospital systems. They’ve been pushed to make decisions without really understanding their diagnosis. They’re looking for a provider who tells them like it is, who has time to educate them and follow through. By starting off your brand with transparency, you set yourself apart from the crowd and tell them you’re trustworthy.  

3. Honesty

Authenticity isn’t a word you hear a lot in medicine. Because modern medicine is more about efficiency than relationships. But you’re practicing relationship-based medicine, so being honest comes with the territory. In clinical practice, you bring your whole self to your patients because you’re with them for the long haul. This should be true in your medical content as well. 

The best medical content isn’t dry or boring, because it’s injected with your passion and your voice. It’s not some cookie-cutter-Web-MD article. It’s copy that reflects who you are as a doctor, a business owner, and a person. Your honesty and authenticity should shine through in your website and blogs, attracting your ideal patients to you. 

Medical Copywriting for Private Practice Search Engine Optimization

Now that we’ve talked about how you want to build trust we can talk strategy. A medical copywriter can help your practice by capitalizing on SEO. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is probably a phrase you’ve heard before. Let’s break down what it means.

Google’s algorithm is always trying to determine which sites are most important for certain searches. It tries to guess this by looking at lots of different things: site traffic, backlinks, pages, page lengths, keywords, reading level, and more. By catering to what Google wants to see, you can make Google work for you by ranking you higher in its results pages. 

SEO is a very different game from Ad marketing. For one, it drives traffic (53%) much more than marketing campaigns (15%). And this makes sense, because people are more savvy about marketing than ever before: 96% of consumers say they don’t trust ads at all. 

The top 3 Google results get half the clicks. According to Moz, the first page of Google gets over 90% of clicks. So you really want to be high on that list. A great medical copywriter can help get you to the first page, or even the first few results, of Google. SEO strategy helps drive qualified leads to your website and boosts your business above the rest. 

So how can medical copywriting get my site on that first page, or even in the top 3 Google results?

Let’s get into a few of the ways medical copywriting ranks you higher in Google:

1. Keyword Research

SEO strategizing means targeting words and phrases that people are searching for, but that there aren’t many good results for. By making content focused on these topics, you not only fill in gaps in knowledge, but you rank more quickly because there’s less competition for those subjects.

Incorporating keywords into your headline, H2s, and throughout your content are ways to tell search engines what your content is about. But Google can see if content is “stuffed” with keywords past the point of readability. A good medical copywriter not only researches the right keywords for your content, they can strategize your headings and keywords frequency to get you the best results from Google. 

2. Content Length and Quality

Google gives more credibility to content that goes in-depth: posts that are at least 1,200 words, and ideally 2,000+. This shows search engines that your piece is more informative than the competition, and it also gives you the chance to really educate your audience on your topic. 

Google gives more credence to content that is readable for the public, and content should be written with audience reading level in mind. For general audiences, a 6th-grade level is ideal, but in the medical niche a 9th-grade level is passable. A good medical copywriter often has a background in medicine, so they can break apart dense medical topics into engaging, readable content for your audience. 

3. Consistency and Formatting

In order to see the powerful long-term benefits of SEO, you need the consistency of posting at least twice a month, and probably more. Google takes time to notice quality SEO, so you should expect at least four to six months before seeing results. Of course, this means making a content schedule (the easy part), and sticking to it (the hard part). 

A lot of practitioners I speak with have this problem: they may enjoy writing and want to write for their practice, but they’re so busy they end up writing a few blogs and then falling off for several months at a time. But without consistency, you could be creating the best content in the world but no one would ever see it. Those few pieces you wrote don’t end up helping you without the follow-through of more content.

Formatting correctly for Google is another important piece of the puzzle. It means properly optimized headlines, H2s, and graphics. Paragraphs should be shorter and consistent in length, phrases should be free of jargon and passive voice, and sentences should be to-the-point. These are just a few of the ways a medical copywriter writes with Google in mind. 

Medical Copywriting to Promote Your Product or Service

At its heart, copywriting is the art of selling through words. Many medical practitioners I speak with squirm at the idea of selling. But I want you to re-frame the idea into showing people how your services can change their lives, make them healthier, and give them peace-of-mind in a chaotic world. By creating copy that emphasizes the benefits of your services, a medical copywriter can help you gain clients who will truly be better from knowing you.

Medical copywriting does not have to be sales-y or slimy. In fact, it really shouldn’t be. Consumers are more savvy about marketing techniques than ever before, and many are turned off by copy that over-promises or pressures them to buy. Medical Copywriting should help sell your services or products using tone that is engaging, truthful, and meaningful. 

What are a few ways a medical copywriter can help generate leads and sales?

1. Market Research

To write for an audience, you need to know who that audience is. Medical copywriters can help your private practice with market research. Copy should speak directly to your specific audience: their pain points, their dreams, their fears. This doesn’t mean exploiting those things, but showing an audience how your services can help alleviate them. 

Some market research comes from you, the practitioner. By thinking about what kind of patients you want to see, who your current patients are, who is subscribing to your mailing list, etc., you can gain insight into the type of person your medical copy should be targeting. 

2. Benefits Over Features

This may seem counter-intuitive, but emphasizing benefits over features is a key way that medical copywriters show what a service can do for your audience. We like to think of ourselves as rational beings, but our emotions dictate a lot more of our lives than we think. By tapping into your audience’s emotions, copywriters help drive them to act. 

Let’s give an example: we’re wanting to sell your SIBO treatment. Instead of writing about how your treatment helps regulate your client’s bowel movements, we’ll emphasize the benefits of that regulation. We could talk about how your clients will be able to enjoy a party without having to go home early from GI upset. Or how your treatment will allow them to eat a full meal with friends without the embarrassment of feeling bloated or nauseous afterwards. 

By showing the benefits of your services, medical copywriting helps communicate how you can help change people’s lives. 

3. Story-Telling

Our SIBO example leads me to another important way that medical copywriting boosts your practice. Since we could speak, storytelling has been a big part of how we communicate and entertain others. Even though we’re writing about medicine, medical copywriting should incorporate storytelling that shows your clients the value of what you do.

There are so many stories you can tell for your practice: what made you want to pursue medicine? What was an early experience with a patient that changed the way you practice? What’s a patient story that shows what you do best? Taking your audience on a journey is a great way to spice up your sales copy, and gives your brand a unique identity. 

Key Takeaways About Medical Copywriting

Obviously I think medical copywriting is pretty cool. Not just for practitioners and practice growth, but for consumers too. Bringing on a professional medical copywriter can help your private practice in ways you probably haven’t imagined.

Regular folks have more access to health information than ever, and I love knowing that the content I wrote has helped people learn more about their bodies. It’s a pretty cool feeling when you can reach thousands, even millions of people through your website. The practitioners I work with get to watch their practice grow while knowing they’re contributing to the democratization of medicine. And that’s pretty amazing. 

Medical copy for sales helps consumers understand what they’re buying. It can connect people with passionate practitioners and life-changing therapies. Good medical copy can bring your obscure treatment or device to the people who need it most. For practitioners, it can help fill their calendar with patients they’re excited to see. 

Incorporating medical copywriting into your brand isn’t a short game. It’s not for people who want a big payout fast. And it’s not for people who aren’t offering a high-quality service. But for business owners who are here for the long-haul, who want to build real lasting relationships with their patients, who want to have an impact on their community, it’s a great way to get there. 

If you’re looking to incorporate medical copywriting into your practice, set up a calendly call with me here, or email me at marie@mariehasty.com. 

5 Science-Backed Reasons We Need to Prioritize Physicians Sleep

The growing specialty of sleep science has made a lot of people rethink our sleep schedules, and many of us know we should be getting more zzz’s. But for many physicians, the schedules of hospital and outpatient medicine don’t allow for optimum sleep habits. But what effect does this have on performance, patient care, and mental health? In this week’s article, we’ll talk about 5 science-backed reasons we should be prioritizing physician’s sleep. 

We already know the standard wisdom of how to get a good night’s sleep. Aim for 8 hours, create a comfortable routine, ditch the phone and computer, etc. Yet even though these are the practices many physicians recommend for their patients, the average practicing physician’s schedule is not made with sleep in mind. 

According to the American Medical Association, the average physician works an average of 40-60 hours per week. Almost a quarter work between 61 and 80 hours. Many physicians also work on-call, or change shifts between day and night. Resident’s schedules are even worse, often working for days on end with only a few hours between patient calls. It’s time that we think about this scheduling impact not only on patient care, but on physicians as humans who deserve good sleep and quality of life. 

1. Sleep deprivation contributes to physician burnout

Burnout affects one out of every two physicians, as defined by the Maslach Burnout Index. It’s defined as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of low personal accomplishments. Not only can burnout lead to low morale, it’s been shown to double a physician’s risk of being involved in patient safety incidents. 

A 2019 study confirmed the correlation between sleep deprivation and burnout. Researchers linked two causative mechanisms: chronic energy depletion, and the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. The combined fatigue and stress of not getting enough sleep contribute to burnout not only in physicians, but nurses, medical students, and other medical workers. 

Despite the evidence linking sleep deprivation and burnout, few hospitals and medical facilities incorporate sleep hygiene into their staff mental health programsEmployer-sponsored efforts to improve staff sleep could create better lives for staff, yet it may mean a decrease in the bottom line for healthcare systems. 

2. Lack of sleep makes physicians prone to errors

We all have experiences of being tired while driving or performing regular tasks. Your mind wanders, your eyelids sag, and you may have to open the window to keep from falling asleep. For busy physicians, however, this fatigue can lead to medical errors that have serious effects on patient health. What’s disturbing is how much more likely errors are when clinical staff haven’t gotten the sleep they need. 

One recent study published by Becker’s hospital review found that just moderate sleep deprivation made physicians 53% more likely to make a significant medical mistake. For physicians who had even less sleep, that likelihood jumped to 97%. 

A literature review by JAMA Network laments the same conclusion. “Interventions for mitigating sleep-related impairment in physicians are warranted.” It’s time we think about the consequences of being drowsy at the wheel of patient care. 

3. Chronic sleep loss is associated with major health consequences over time

Chronic sleep deprivation, as described by getting less than 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night, has long-term consequences on health. Research has revealed that several body systems are impacted by sleep health, and loss of sleep causes more problems than daytime sleepiness. 

In fact, chronic sleep loss is associated with weight gain, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, anxiety, depression, and increased alcohol dependence. The WhiteHall II study found that getting less than five hours of sleep per night actually doubled the risk of cardiovascular disease. 

In the short term, sleep deprivation is also linked to motor vehicle collisions and mistakes that can lead to serious bodily harm. According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration estimated that in 2017, 91,000 police-reported crashes were associated with drowsy driving. These accidents led to 50,000 injured people and almost 800 deaths.  

Physicians have a right to good health, just like the rest of us. They shouldn’t have to sacrifice their bodies to care for ours. Now that we know that sleep is so important for short and long-term health, why aren’t we incorporating these findings into medical practice?

4. We owe it to our frontline staff to get good sleep

After working nights myself, I know how sleep can impact quality of life for frontline workers. During the peak waves of COVID, healthcare workers have been asked to take care of more patients while getting less sleep themselves. It is my deeply held belief that we can’t care for others without being given the space to care for ourselves. 

In May of 2021, surveyed healthcare workers reported a nearly universal decrease in sleep quality. One-third reported insomnia, and over half experienced burnout. Some also had sleep disruption because of nightmares and devices. A review published in 2020 confirmed an uptick in sleep disturbances for frontline staff. So not only are frontline workers getting less sleep, they’re getting worse sleep. 

“Unprecedented” times have put real strain on healthcare workers, and have already contributed to a mass exodus from medicine. As we combat this next strain of COVID, I think it’s important to point out that frontline workers are people too. We’re not clinical robots who exist to treat patients. We need time away from work, we need relaxation in an uncertain world, and we need sleep. 

5. Medicine has a culture of brushing off self-care

The culture of “going beyond” in medicine goes further back than COVID. Medical workers have long prided themselves on their dedication and tirelessness in patient care. Their passion for patients comes through in working long hours, doing more with less staff, and going above and beyond to provide the best care possible. This dedication allows hospitals to run despite offering lower wages, less benefits, and lacking support for clinical staff. 

The beginning of the pressure to perform begins before internship and residency. Medical students tend to get less sleep than other majors. This lacking sleep contributes to a decreased sense of quality of life, and leads to depression and anxiety even before any clinical practice. In order to change this culture, we need to start seeing med students, interns, residents, and physicians as people, first. 

I think it’s possible to achieve balance in medicine. As clinical staff, I don’t think we should have to string ourselves along on three hours of sleep to care for patients. I also don’t think compassionate healthcare workers should have to suffer from burnout and long-term health issues because of gruelling schedules. Patients shouldn’t have to pay the consequences of clinician sleep loss through medical errors.  

In theory, many healthcare leaders would agree. Yet we don’t see these values enacted in the structuring of medicine. Even as healthcare workers are called “heroes”, they’re not treated as such by hospital systems. I’m worried about what will happen to medicine when we’ve burned through our compassionate and dedicated clinical staff. 

For now, it seems that the best way to prioritize your own self-care and sleep as a physician is to ditch the healthcare system and forge your own path. This isn’t an option for everyone. Creating your own practice, and your own schedule, can be a terrifying proposition for clinicians. But I think it’s one way to regain control of your life and your practice.


If you’re a practitioner looking to get more sleep by saving time on content creation and marketing, get in touch. I’m passionate about creating quality medical copy, helping practitioners get more patients, create more streams of income, and get their lives back.

Top 5 Passive Income Streams for Holistic Practitioners

If you’re on any social media, you’ve probably been hearing the buzz about passive income. While investing has always been a way for the rich to get richer, it’s becoming more popular for regular people to diversify their earnings. My hunch is that this new hustle culture stems from the mismatch between cost of living and income. Regardless, it’s never been easier to set yourself up to earn money from the couch. In this article, I’ll list the top 5 passive income streams for holistic practitioners. 

You already know about the most popular way to make passive income through financial investments, so I won’t cover that in this piece. Instead, we’ll talk about strategies where you can put in some work on the front end (or pay someone else to) and reap big rewards on the back end. Each of these requires minimal skill, and is a viable way to increase your income without increasing your working hours. So let’s dive in!

1. Create a course for your patients or your peers

The internet has opened up the world of online learning. E-learning has been on a steady rise for the last 20 years, and has grown 900% since 2000. During the COVID-19 pandemic, primary and university students turned to virtual learning when in-person classes were no longer safe. Over the last two years, we’ve all seen the potential to learn from educators across the globe, on our own time. 

Private online courses typically cost less than university classes. They usually teach skills rather than academic subjects. And they’re typically very tailored to an audience. Say, a course tailored to health coaches who are looking to grow their business. There are even courses out there on how to create your own course! Course-ception anyone?

Creating your own course might sound overwhelming, but you’ve already done most of the work. You’ve put in the clinical hours, passed the certification exams, and you know the human body. Now you just have to decide who you want to teach. 

Choosing a specific audience is your first step in course creation, because it not only guides the information you include but who you market your course to once it’s created. Think about your audience now, and who you want to help most. Is it your patients? Other practitioners? People wanting to become practitioners? 

Next you can choose a tool to create your own course, like this one or this one. You can spend hours writing your course yourself, or you can hire someone to do it for you, like me!

Creating your own course is not only a great way to earn passive income down the line, but it also can position you to be an expert in the field you teach. Many course creators end up with branching streams of income from coaching, consulting, speaking engagements, and more. Think of where you’d like to be in 5 years, both financially and professionally. Creating your own course could be a big brick in the foundation of your future. 

2. Membership-based services

Membership-based health services aren’t limited to Direct Primary Care. Any practitioner can create a subscription service that grows their audience, strengthens their authority, and earns them passive income. There’s a big untapped market for subscription-based health services outside of primary care, especially for holistic practitioners.

Much like DPC practices, your holistic practice can profit off of subscriptions as well. This may not be a solution for all holistic practitioners, but it’s great if you work outside of insurance and are currently growing your practice. Patients with subscription plans benefit from the peace-of-mind of knowing they can always see their provider if a need arises, and practitioners benefit from the stable income associated with subscription plans. 

Of course, many practitioners wonder what to include in a subscription plan. A tier-based system works for some, where you can still see patients who don’t subscribe. Monthly subscribers enjoy perks of increased accessibility, exclusive content, and products. An example of a tier-based subscription plan could be:

No membershipBasic MembershipPremium MembershipExecutive membership
Cost$0$50/month$250$400
Visits$500 each$80 each$20$0
FrequencyScheduled as a work-inGuaranteed appointments within two weeks of request, in-officeGuaranteed appointments within a week of request, in-officeGuaranteed appointments within two days of request, at-home visits an option
Exclusive content/prod-ucts/servicesCan subscribe to email list with monthly newsletterSubscribed to weekly newsletter with valuable holistic health updates and contentSubscribed to weekly newsletter and  exclusive facebook group. Includes bi-monthly call check-ins with provider. Subscribed to weekly newsletter and exclusive facebook group. Includes monthly check-ins with provider, as well as one free promotional product per month. 

Structuring your practice this way not only provides a more steady income stream for the holistic provider, but it also can lead to income growth in the future. By capitalizing on the networks of your Premium and Executive membership clients, you can gain more high-ticket clients down the line. You position yourself to gain access to more clients who are serious about improving their health and have the means to do it. 

Of course, not every provider is interested in being available in the style of a concierge practice. And for good reason; practitioners need vacations just like the rest of us. For that reason, your first move might be to. . .

3. Grow your practice by hiring PA’s, NP’s, or assistants

Okay, I’m ready for some skepticism on this one. Many doctors have hired PA’s and NP’s only to find that they end up with more paperwork than they want. And depending on your credentials as a practitioner, it might not be feasible to hire someone else to see your patients. 

This is a great option if you’re feeling maxed out on patient hours and have the credentials to supervise PAs and NPs. Especially if you’re wanting to move towards a concierge model, these practitioners can help spread the load of on-call care while letting you take on more subscription patients. They can also help you optimize your time by performing screening exams, physicals, etc. while you see your sicker clients who need your specific expertise.  

Choosing the right advanced practice providers is an important part here; by rushing the hiring process you may end up with a team that doesn’t represent you or your practice. But by taking your time to thoroughly interview applicants, you can grow your practice while saving yourself valuable time. 

As the demand for holistic and primary care increases, more and more physicians and practitioners are experiencing the burnout of being spread too thin for too long. Allowing an NP or PA to absorb some of your patient burden is a great strategy to mitigate burnout and grow your practice for the long haul. 

4. Become a brand affiliate partner

This is a great option if you are already active on social media or have an established practice. Many brands are excited to be represented by a holistic practitioner, because you add value and credibility to their product. Of course, it’s important that you actually believe in the product you’re representing, but more on that later. 

Affiliate partnerships are different from traditional advertising, because people go through you to buy a product. Each time someone makes a purchase, they use your personal code, which bounces some of that purchase money back to you in commissions. 

For this reason I recommend looking first at the products you use every day, the ones that you have seen the greatest results with. Ones that your patients are already buying, but they could be purchasing through you. For example, specific vitamins, cleaning products, medicated lotions, and other holistic products could be great options for affiliate marketing. 

Affiliate partnerships are great for the entrepreneurial holistic practitioner who doesn’t mind working with marketing teams and brands. Some practitioners are understandably averse to the idea of marketing products to their patients, and that’s why I recommend choosing products you already know and trust. By doing so, you can take in passive income from great brands while knowing your patients are getting real results. 

5. Invest in content creation to grow your wellness brand

Finally, my personal favorite. This option really can be the beginning of so many other streams of income, because it means growing your own brand and expanding your reach as a holistic practitioner. It allows you to educate your potential and current clients by putting out helpful and accurate health information. It elevates you in your field, and can make you a sought-after expert. Of course, it’s also what I do for my clients, so I’m a little biased. 

Of course, creating content isn’t a passive process. In fact, I can tell you my work is anything but passive. But for my clients, the copy I write for them is a passive investment in the future of their practices and their own names. 

Here’s why I believe content creation is the cornerstone of passive income:

  • Search-Engine Optimized content allows you to climb in Google’s list of results, generating website traffic and new client leads.
  • Use your highly-trafficked website as an advertising platform for your favorite brands and products, as well as your own courses and subscription services. 
  • Grow your audience for future products and services, like courses, ebooks, exclusive products, subscriptions, and more.
  • Establishing a list of subscribers allows you to market your new course, subscription, and more to warm leads who are excited to hear about your services. 
  • Become an industry leader and field expert by giving your audience up-to-the-minute health content that educates and gains you trust. 
  • Strong content can open you up to future speaking engagements, partnerships, entrepreneurial opportunities, and more. 

As a clinician myself, I know how hard practitioners are working to meet the needs of a sick population. We care for patients out of compassion and knowledge, but that doesn’t fill our wallets. Sometimes it seems like the most passionate, knowledgeable, and caring practitioners get left in the dust in terms of income. That’s why I think it’s so important for holistic practitioners to know their options in terms of generating passive income and growing wealth.

Do you have any thoughts or comments about this article? Email me at marie@mariehasty.com. 

Why Doctors Need Marketing Now More Than Ever

Let’s forget about COVID-19 for a second (what a treat!) and just think about the last decade. Let’s talk about why doctors need marketing now more than ever.

It’s no secret that healthcare is changing. The Affordable Care Act has increased accessibility for many, the provider side has seen less benefit. It seems the trend these days is for physicians to get less time with patients, doing what they spent time and money being trained to do, and more time filing insurance & filling in paperwork. 

All for less payout on the back end. 

And while medicine is a calling, I’m willing to bet physicians like a real paycheck just like the rest of us. 

But let’s not pretend that all of medicine’s problems started with the Affordable Care Act. 

Because of rigorous and extensive schooling, physicians carry a student loan average of over $200,000. That’s a heavy debt to start a career with, to say the least. 

Adding insult to injury, the for-profit healthcare system seems to be turning a profit not for medical workers, but for the business majors who end up in leadership positions. 

As someone who has worked in the large-scale medical industry, I’ve felt this frustration first-hand. While you have the clinical knowledge and skills to save lives, the ones who make the big decisions (and the big money) probably couldn’t interpret a blood pressure. 

Now let’s talk about COVID-19. While the healthcare system loves to tout the word “heroes”, providers are treated like anything but. 

In large-scale medical systems, doctors are being expected to work more hours, and many have had to forego time with family for fear of secondary COVID exposure. 

In the clinic side, doctors have been able to see less patients due to distancing restrictions. They’re caught between wanting to see people who need them, and fear of exposing themselves and their staff. 

And going back to insurance, job losses are leading more people to file with the Affordable Care Act, causing once higher-paying clients to become the opposite. 

Have I painted a picture of your frustrations? I hope so. I’m frustrated too. I think people who work hard for others (that’s you!) should get to reap the benefits of their hard work. 

That means financial security. 

That means time with family. 

That means confidence in your growing practice. 

But how can you get there? 

Maybe you’ve seen competitors or peers advance their practices, and maybe they seem to be living the life you want, but you’re not sure what they’re doing that you’re not. 

Maybe you’ve thought the forbidden question: “Are they just better than me?” 

And I’m here to tell you: “Absolutely not!”

The hard truth is, medicine is business. 

In the old days, docs relied on word-of-mouth to sell their practice. Referrals made up the bulk of their clientele. Practices didn’t need to reach out to clients, because clients were reaching out to them. 

Those days are over. And the practices that know that are doing far better than the ones that don’t. 

So what are physicians and their practices doing to meet the new healthcare system head on?

They’re treating their practice like a business. 

That means investing in themselves, and that means investing in marketing. 

Marketing that builds relationships with prospective clients, before they even walk through the door. 

Data-driven content that informs them, keeps them returning, and moves you to the forefront of your field. 

Medical Copy that shows who you are, how you can improve lives, and why to choose you over the competition. 

But are physicians adding marketing strategy to their long list of duties? Are they finishing out 10-hour days by spending hours writing content? Are they taking away more time from their families to advance their practice? 

I hope not. Because they could be paying me to do all of that, while getting better results. 

So tell me, are you ready to have the practice you’ve been dreaming of?