Key Post Highlights
> Blogs provide readers with the information they actually need.
> Blogs connect you with your audience.
> Blogs create leads.
The amount of information available with the click of a few buttons is nearly endless — especially when it comes to information about your health.
For better or worse, Dr. Google often replaces an actual conversation with a healthcare professional. People are looking for answers to anything from “Am I having a heart attack?” (4,400 monthly searches) to “Why is my hair falling out?” (22,200 monthly searches) to “How to stop hiccups” (60,500 monthly searches). Where readers find this information, of course, depends on what appears on the search engine results page.
The first step is getting your healthcare organization to show up on the results page with a good distribution strategy. Once readers get there, your blog sits at the center of an integrated healthcare marketing strategy.
While blogs date back to the mid-1990s, they have since become a crucial part of any healthcare organization’s website. Here are 3 roles blogs will play in healthcare marketing in 2023.
1. Healthcare blogs provide readers with accurate (and unique) information.
There’s no doubt that readers are searching the web for information about their health, whether it’s preventative, diagnostic, or therapeutic. The problem lies with where they stumble upon the information they’re searching for.
As a healthcare organization, you play an essential role in providing accurate and easy-to-digest information. Some would even argue that it’s your responsibility to do so.
What’s more, you can provide specific information that’s tough to find elsewhere. Forget the disease 101 stuff. Not only does that not cater to your specific audience, but it doesn’t showcase your organization’s expertise. By giving readers information that only you can provide, you’re delivering a much-needed service and becoming a thought leader in your space.
Not only does a blog benefit your patients, but it also promotes your specific services by explaining how they can support your audience’s health.
2. Healthcare blogs allow you to connect with your specific audience.
A good healthcare website has varied content. You have your pillar (or static) content, which highlights services, providers, and other relatively unchanging information.
But you also need an outlet for more specific information and a way to connect to your current and prospective patients.
Fluid content — such as the content on your blog — allows you to connect with patients, providers, and other people in your ecosystem. It’s precise communication tailored to your audience’s values.
From age to geographic location to socioeconomic status to race, there are many factors that you need to consider when relating to your audience and providing useful information. A blog is a space for exactly that.
3. Healthcare blogs create leads and boost your business.
Whether you’re looking to bring in new patients, promote a service line, recruit new providers, or do something else entirely, blogs are a place to make this happen.
The more active your blog is, the higher your site’s chances are of showing up on the search results page, being shared on social media, or being linked to from another page. In fact, companies with blogs have 97% more backlinks to their sites.
Once people make it to your website, they can see your calls to action, share your content, make appointments, and apply for jobs. These leads turn into tangible results for your organization.
Blog Your Way Into 2023
It’s never too late to start a robust marketing strategy that includes a blog. With a well-thought-out content calendar, engaging writing, and useful information, you can provide your audience and your organization with what it needs most this year.
At CareContent, we know blogs. Not only do we maintain the blogs of numerous clients, but we manage our own. Our newly reimagined blog, Bookmarked, provides even more useful, timely, and actionable information for our target audiences.
Ready to begin, enhance, or completely reimagine your healthcare organization’s blog? Let us help!
Build a digital footprint to establish a relationship with your audience that keeps them coming back for more. Connect with our digital strategists.
