One of the best ways to drive traffic to your healthcare website is to publish a blog. A blog will help you engage your patients or buyers and showcase expertise in your field. In the process, you can instill trust and build strong relationships. Ultimately, this could result in more business for your healthcare organization. How? B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67 percent more leads than those that do not.
But before you begin creating posts, you need to know your customers. Who are they? What is their profession? How do they make decisions? Once you understand your audience, you will then be able to write content that fits their needs and online searches.
While starting a blog may seem easy, coming up with relevant and quality content consistently is a challenge for many bloggers. Here are some strategic content ideas to consider for your healthcare blog.
1. Healthcare Basics
Many people lack knowledge about the basic concepts of healthcare. For instance, you could write about topics such as “Health Insurance Basics” and “National Healthcare Policy Explained.” Though this information might be too simple for many, others would find it extremely helpful. Such topics will drive more traffic to your blog and website. You could also offer some information about specific medical conditions. For example, Dr. John Mandrola has written a great article about atrial flutter.
2. “How-To” Guides
One of the most effective types of content is how-to guides or tutorials. This is basically a post that highlights an issue and provides a step-by-step solution for dealing with it. Such posts are very effective because they are easy to read and address problems people deal with every day. As a result, how-to guides are likely to drive more organic traffic to your blog. However, you need to ensure that the information presented in the post is factual and current. Offering flawed information could have grievous effects on your credibility. DrEd.com has a great article about malaria prevention for travelers.
3. Lists
Most people love lists because they are brief and to the point. One of the most popular types of lists are those that rank things in a certain order. For example, you could have a list of the “10 Ways Cancer May be Treated” or “15 Home Remedies for the Flu.” Getreferralmd.com has compiled a great list outlining how social media has impacted healthcare.
4. Expert Interviews
Interviews offer your blog audience the opportunity to learn from the experiences and thoughts of experts. Many people in the healthcare industry would be open to be interviewed. One of the best ways to conduct interviews is via Skype or Google Hangouts. You can then write a summary of the interview and embed the video on your blog. Alternatively, you could transcribe the whole interview and share it as a blog post. Kaisermedicalmanagement.com offers several insightful and downloadable interviews of business leaders, wellness experts and health organizations.
5. Opinion Pieces
Compared to other types of content, opinion pieces can be risky. If the post is offensive, you are likely to lose credibility as well as traffic to your blog. However, if you strike the right chord, people who feel passionately one way or the other may share it.
Be sure to offer sufficient evidence to support your opinion. Even if some people don’t agree with your view, they will appreciate your candor and might even share the post. A good example is this passionate piece by Adam Rapp about the recent ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
6. Infographics
Since people love visuals, infographics are more likely to be shared than other types of content. For the content to capture the attention of your audience, you need to make it as attractive and educational as possible. The good news is that there are many awesome tools out there that can help you create a powerful infographic. The powerful infographic below on pcrm.org offers great information with graphics about preventing heart diseases.
7. Testimonials
Testimonials or reviews can be a powerful way of boosting the credibility of your healthcare organization. You can mention quotes from patients in your regular blog posts, or even combine several reviews into one blog post. However, before using any reviews, be sure to ask the people who left them for permission. If they are willing, you could even ask them to give testimonials on video, which can then be embedded on your blog. To boost the credibility of written reviews, be sure to include the name and photo of the reviewer. Baylorhearthospital.com is a good example of a blog combining both written and video testimonials.
8. FAQ Answers
“Why is my child breathing fast?” “What is the best cure for an allergy?” “How do you handle post-natal depression?” People are always asking these and other questions about medical-related problems. You can gather several questions on various forums and create blog posts that provide answers. Dedicate one day of the week to specifically answer patient questions. This will build your credibility, as well as drive patients typing queries into search engines to your blog. On his blog, Dr. Howard Luks addresses a patient’s question about knee pain.
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