This day and age, a professional blog is an essential tool for every business—and healthcare marketers are certainly not exempt. According to inbound marketing software provider HubSpot, B2B marketers who use blogs as part of their content marketing strategy rake in 67% more leads than those that don’t. Pretty darn compelling.
Whether you’re trying to connect with patients, physicians or hospital administrators, a blog is an effective way to engage your target audience. However, it’s not enough for healthcare marketers to string together a few words, slap them on a post and call it a day. Your blog is not only the communication hub for your business; it’s also a reflection of your brand. If you want to connect with your customers, it’s critical to provide fresh, valuable information that either educates, inspires or solves a problem.
Does your healthcare blog fall flat? Here are three ways to spice things up and engage your audience:
1. Catch their eye with impossible-to-ignore headlines.
A poorly written, rambling or boring headline can be the death of a blog post. When you stick a humdrum headline at the top of a blog post, it really doesn’t matter how much time and effort you put into the actual article. If the title doesn’t immediately draw in your readers, you’ve already lost them.
In fact, your blog title is so important, expert marketer Drayton Bird says you should spend 80% of your time writing the headline and only 20% writing the rest of the content.
So, what are the keys to a catchy headline? First of all, don’t be afraid to show a little passion. Headlines that express strong emotions, either negative or positive, typically perform better. Secondly, use uncommon words. For instance, the title “How to Write a Good Blog” includes everyday terms. (Yawn.) On the other hand, “6 Surefire Ways to Craft a Kick-Ass Blog” contains quite a few unconventional words. Which one of these blogs would you be more likely to read?
2. Post more often.
When it comes to blogging, consistency is key. Once you establish a solid audience, the more often you post, the better. According to Forbes, if you want to keep your regular readers happy, you should post at least once a week.
Studies show that companies that produce 16 posts or more each month have higher SEO traffic than those who don’t post as often. Of course, writing a blog can be incredibly time-consuming, so it may not be realistic to churn out 16 posts a month.
Figure out how often your competitors are posting and try to exceed or at least match that frequency. Also, consider how often you have updates, news or other info to share with your customers. This will also influence how many blogs you post each month.
3. Invite a guest.
If you’re struggling to come up with a fresh new topic for your next blog, why not invite a guest blogger to help out?
Of course, not any guest blogger will do. (You probably shouldn’t call up Uncle Joe and ask him to write about his favorite NFL team.) You’ll want to find a healthcare professional or marketing expert who can provide some valuable content that’s relevant to your audience.
When you invite an expert guest blogger to write a post, it’s a win-win. Not only will this enhance your credibility and add some interest to your blog; it may also help out in the SEO department. If your guest blogger links back to their website, this will boost SEO for both of you.
Of course, this is just a handful of suggestions. There are countless other ways to enrich your healthcare marketing blog. Then again, if you even have a blog, you’re already ahead of the curve. Only 58 percent of health care marketers use blogs as compared to 74 percent of all marketers, according to a Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs study.
Are you ready to tap into the power of blogging, but aren’t sure where to begin? IHM can help! Contact us today for information.