5 Ways to Operate a Better Healthcare Blog
Blogging has become big business over the past decade and now millions of people are posting their insights online on a daily basis. While the practice may have started with merely personal blogs, it has now expanded to businesses in every possible industry. The healthcare industry has seen major benefits from blogging. Along with helping medical marketers pitch their latest products, blogs also enable healthcare providers to promote their practices and connect with consumers at every stage of the healthcare journey. Plus, healthcare blogs also result in greater opportunities for search engine optimization (SEO), which boosts a provider’s exposure to patients and builds trust in their practice. To help your medical blog stand out from the rest and bring both readers and patients, MedNet-Tech.com prescribed these five strategies.
1. Focus on Your Patients – Remember that your blog is for patients and must be written to be relevant to their needs and interests. And a blog is a way to connect with consumers on a personal level, so use language they’ll understand and avoid complicated medical terms. While you want to be perceived as an expert, it’s just as important to be seen as their trusted and caring partner who’s there to guide them on their healthcare journey.
2. Treat Readers to Optimized Mobile Viewing – Today’s healthcare consumer has a world of digital technology at their fingertips. Pew research shows that 33% of consumers go online to research medical conditions and search for nearby healthcare providers, according to MDG’s informative e-book “A Marketer’s Guide To The Empowered Healthcare Consumer.” And mobile is quickly becoming the primary way that consumers research and read medical information. So to maximize your mobile exposure, your blog must be optimized for mobile viewing on all digital devices. This will let prospective patients find and follow your blog from anywhere, at any time.
3. Make It Short and Scannable – With the popularity of mobile devices, consumers are often on the go. Due to both smaller screens and busier lives, they tend to seek out short-and-sweet summaries instead of long and detailed data. That’s why you should keep your blog posts to between 350 and 500 words. Also, use bullets or bolding to highlight key facts, as well as visual content like photos or video to capture the reader’s attention. Incorporating all of these elements will make patients much more likely to read and revisit your blog.
4. Add SEO to Your Schedule – No matter how interesting or informative your blog, it will rarely be read if it’s lost online. Patients have little patience when they’re looking for medical information on the Web, so they tend to click and stick with the top rankings returned by their search results. And the way to improve your odds of being recognized and highly ranked by search engines is through targeted SEO.
5. Make Posting a Regular Practice – Consumers constantly crave fresh content, so it’s vital to continually update your blog. You don’t need to post every day, but stick to a frequent blogging schedule on timely and topical happenings. This should result in a major increase in both readership and return visits.
By following these five simple tips for operating a medical blog, the practice of posting can work wonders to improve your healthcare marketing efforts.
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MDG, a full-service advertising agency with offices in Boca Raton and New York City, is one of Florida’s top healthcare marketing companies and branding firms, whose healthcare clients include Dental Care Alliance, MDVIP, Max Planck Florida Institute, HCA East Florida, Primary Pharmaceuticals, the biostation, and MD Now. MDG’s core capabilities include branding, logo design, print advertising, digital marketing, mobile marketing, email marketing, media planning and buying, radio and TV advertising, outdoor, newspaper, blogs, video marketing, infographic development, Web design and development, content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO. To learn more about the latest trends in healthcare marketing, contact MDG.