Blogs help create and develop your brand equity in the vast market of healthcare, where patients look for quality services from healthcare professionals.
What comes to mind when you think of social media marketing? The most obvious would be Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Did you ever consider a blog to be a social media marketing platform?
What was once considered a casual form of expressing opinions online has now evolved into an effective marketing strategy for businesses, healthcare being no exception. Hospitals, physicians, dentists and other healthcare providers can utilize this platform for online marketing. If you still haven’t included blogging as part of your healthcare marketing strategy, you are probably missing out on the benefits it can drive for your practice.
Let’s have a look at the benefits of blogs for healthcare marketing:
Blogs can drive traffic to your main website
Almost all hospitals/physicians have a website that provides essential information about their services. But a website will only be helpful for converting leads only if it stands out on the first pages of search engines. Blogs provide a platform for interacting with readers as well as drive traffic to your website through internal links or calls to action. Furthermore, if blogs are written using strategic keywords, they can dramatically improve the search engine rankings of both – blog and the main website.
Build a personal connection with blogs
Most healthcare business success comes from strong relationships with patients as they become your brand advocates when satisfied. Though you should be putting focused and consistent efforts for marketing your practice over the Internet and social media, there is one underlying, fundamental aspect to marketing your practice that should permeate into all your efforts: relationship building by touching human emotions. Blogging is one of the most effective platforms to form a connection with patients and potential prospects. If they like the content that is posted in blogs, they are likely to develop a feeling of trust and credibility and may consider booking an appointment next time.
Educate, drive interest and attract organic traffic
Internet marketing industry experts suggest that blogging and business growth are directly proportional. People randomly click on pages they feel are relevant to their search. So, if you regularly blog about topics pertaining to your specialization with high-quality content, it will attract more people to your website. Among these website visitors there can be many potential patients and there is a good chance of some of them turning up at your practice. It’s a smart way of selling your practice to online health viewers who will see your expertise, area of specialization, experience and your ideas on treatment options for various health ailments.
Blogs are natural search engine optimizers
From the SEO point of view, blogs are a boon. Regular blogs build content that people can share. Sharing blog links will do wonders for your website ranking in search engines, which reward fresh and unique content. This implies that your website can be ‘crawled’ or indexed more frequently, allowing your content to be found on the first pages of search engines.
Blog pages on your website are natural search engine optimizers as they contain rich keywords, links and frequently updated content, which increase traffic on your web pages. You can also link other pages within your website that contain more information on some topics, which will also be helpful in optimizing your website in the search engines.
Get discovered via social media
When it comes to social media, the key to survival is to have a continual stream of fresh ideas in form of content. Blogging is an excellent cost-effective way to market your practice. It helps you to set yourself apart from those physicians who are not active on web, so you can attract more potential patients through blogs. People search online resources to find solutions regarding their general health problems, specific diseases, latest treatments and best physicians for treatment of their health issues. The online sources include blogs, social networking sites and physician rating websites. Therefore, adding blogs to your digital marketing plan will not only help tap potential patients from the crowd of online health information viewers, but will also help you create online visibility.
If you still don’t have a blog, the right time to start it is NOW! Kick-start your blog and turn it into a strategic tool that drives traffic to your website and use it as a platform to build a positive online reputation. Bridge the space between your healthcare services and patients via blogging.