Health blogs can be an excellent way of sharing health-related content with readers. But competition for these platforms can be fierce; therefore it is vital that you employ effective blogging tactics in order to make your health blog shine out from its peers.
Writing content with an evidence base, whether for your own health blog or writing for an organization, is of utmost importance. Here are a few tips to help you achieve that goal.
1. Think Outside the Box
As a health care business owner, blogging should be one of your key marketing strategies. A blog can establish you as an authority in your field while drawing new clients in. But writing an effective blog requires much work and commitment – regularly publishing fresh content is required for success!
Make sure that your blog is relevant for its target audience by identifying their demographic. For example, if your goal is to reach patients through your posts, include information that addresses their daily lives.
If your goal is to reach physicians or other healthcare decision makers, your blog must include content relevant to their issues. Deliberately selecting your target audience will also help select an ideal venue and ensure it reaches the appropriate individuals.
Think outside of the box by broadening your worldview and approaching issues from different perspectives. Learn a new skill or take an online course that can open your mind to fresh concepts.
Attaining unconventional thinking requires reaching out to new perspectives on projects or ideas you have and devising creative solutions from people you don’t know personally. Consultations is another effective method of stretching beyond conventional approaches to problem-solving and can offer new perspectives that lead to unexpected solutions.
2. Make It Personal
When blogging about health, there are certain considerations you must keep in mind when creating engaging content. One such consideration is making use of graphics, photos and videos in your blog – this not only adds visual interest but can also boost perceived value of what is written therein.
Attract more visitors and maintain their interest by writing about topics that are unique and personal for you and your audience, such as an interesting personal tale or fact related to health conditions you want others to learn more about.
Be it writing about yourself or healthcare technology, it is imperative that your readers feel like the words they read come from a source who understand their situation and is there to offer support and assistance.
The best blogs are those that create an intimate connection between reader and blog writer. This means they must reflect the reader’s experience accurately while offering unique insight on their subject matter. These posts also serve to build relationships while showing readers you care for their health by providing access to vital information they require in order to lead healthy lives.
3. Use Plain Language
Plain language simplifies health information for all. This also eliminates power hierarchies and reduces miscommunication between patients and healthcare professionals, and builds trust and reduces stress, making the experience of receiving healthcare easier to bear.
Writing for the public requires understanding that everyone comes from different backgrounds with varied educational experiences and literacy levels, meaning they may have different expectations about which information will be helpful or relevant to them.
Effective writing for any audience means keeping their needs, concerns and questions top of mind while drawing upon your knowledge of health to craft an accessible message.
Healthcare industries face unique challenges when it comes to communicating content clearly, such as eliminating acronyms and field-specific jargon that could mislead readers or tailoring your style accordingly to accommodate your target audience. In these instances, removing unneeded words such as acronyms is the way forward to create clearer communication for patients and colleagues alike.
As an example, instead of writing “economic development” when discussing a recent award on your blog, try using more direct language such as “business.” This makes your message much simpler to comprehend rather than including an extensive list of obscure terms which might not be familiar to readers.
Producing an easily navigable website is one of the best ways to deliver your message to visitors, according to studies. Studies have also demonstrated that people who visit user-friendly sites tend to be more satisfied with the overall experience. It is therefore vital that when crafting website copy it abides with plain language guidelines.
4. Add Personal Stories
One of the most captivating aspects of health blog writing is engaging your audience through memorable stories that they won’t soon forget. Whatever it may be – from sorrowful stories of suffering or success stories – keeping patients and followers informed on the topics most pertinent to them will turn them into loyal fans of your practice. It may be as straightforward as asking existing patients what issues are of greatest concern to them, or it could require further digging. Most health blogs feature an online chat feature which is particularly helpful here. So if you haven’t done so already, start the dialogue by introducing yourself and asking a few questions about the health care needs of your patients; they will let you know which topics they want addressed most directly.
5. Start with a Bold Statement
As one of the best blogging tips for health blogs, one effective strategy for beginning an eye-catching post is starting off strong with an attention-grabbing statement that grabs readers and makes them want to read on.
Bold statements can range in complexity from simple ideas to complicated concepts; either way they must be clear and compelling to stand out among other health blogs. A bold statement may even need to be controversial in order to truly be noticeable among peers.
Start Your Blog Off Right This is an invaluable tip for those wanting to launch their blog, particularly if they are new to blogging or haven’t written in awhile. By taking this route, you can establish yourself as an authority figure while drawing in more clients to your business.
Finding an approach that works for you will require trial and error; but eventually you should discover one.
Identification and modification of words or phrases that you overuse is another effective strategy that can save both time and make your writing more comprehensible for readers. This strategy will make writing faster while making content more memorable and easier to comprehend for them.
Finally, when searching for information it’s always advisable to select reliable sources – this includes official associations, government websites, heavily-cited research papers, and leading industry experts. Just make sure that when approaching any source be wary; always do your own research first in order to verify if any claims made are actually trustworthy.
6. Don’t Forget Social Media
One of the key components of successful blogging for health blogs is social media – an integral component of overall marketing processes that should be one of your top priorities when creating and publishing blog-centric content.
As you create content, make sure to include links to your social channels so readers can easily share it with their own networks and widen its reach into new audiences and heighten engagement levels. This will increase reader participation and strengthen brand recognition among audiences beyond your core group of readers.
Social media allows you to create an effective content loop by posting short, bite-size updates about topics of importance to your audience and drawing them back to your blog for further in depth research.
As an example, if you are a healthcare company looking to promote clinical research opportunities, blogging about different kinds of clinical trials currently available can provide your audience with a broader overview and educate them about participating in such studies.
Another effective social media tactic for your business is posting blog articles directly on Twitter, so people can see them and cite them when tweeting about them. Furthermore, by including hashtags with each social post you make sure that it can appear in suggested feeds or updates shared across platforms like this one.
