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4 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid (And What to Do Instead)

4 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Blogging provides several benefits to businesses. Many businesses owners have turned to blogging to reach a wider audience, drive traffic to their site, promote their products and services, and increase conversions. Blogging can help you achieve your business goals, provided that you avoid certain pitfalls.

Here are 4 blogging mistakes you need to avoid, along with some tips to get the results you want.

Inconsistent blogging

Let’s face it. Creating content can be time-consuming. We understand that most of you have a crazy schedule and you’re struggling to find time to write your next blog post. But in order to achieve your goals, you need to stick to a consistent posting schedule. It’s not enough to post content when you have something to say. You should publish new content at least once a week.

Inconsistent blogging is bad enough for your SEO growth; it can also make you look like an amateur. This can sink your blog and can cost your business sales. To make your business blog work, we suggest that you develop a content calendar. Plan your blog topics ahead of time and try to schedule posts in advance.

Your writing is too stiff and technical

A well-written blog is one that strikes a conversation with their readers. Get rid of the jargon and loosen up your writing. It’s okay to be more conversational in your writing. In fact, we encourage you to write like you talk. People want to feel like they’re dealing with people, not robot. The more conversational your writing is, the more people will enjoy reading it.

When you write in a conversational tone, you can convey your message more easily. It also helps you engage with your audience and build a stronger relationship with them. They’ll see you as genuine and human, not as a faceless brand who’s trying to sell to them.

In 2020, Neil Patel ran A/B test on two versions of the same blog post. One was written conversationally, while the other one was written in a formal tone. Here, he discovered that the majority of the readers only spent less than two minutes on the blog post that was written in a formal tone. Whereas, readers spent an average of 4.5 minutes reading the conversational version. Also, 247% more readers consumed the full article when written in a conversational tone.

Being self-centered

A blog is a great platform for giving your audience updates about your business and promoting your products and services. However, not every post in your blog should be about you. Rather, you should focus on who you are writing for.

Create content your audience will find interesting. Be helpful.  Answer all the questions you’ve been asked by customers. Share your expertise. You may also share your opinion on certain topics. Write blog posts that are creative, informative and interesting.

So what’s the key to selecting the best topics for your blog? It’s knowing your target audience. Once you know who you’re writing for, it will easier for you to create a list of blog topics.

One of the best ways to find out what your audience likes is to check your analytics and identify your top performing posts. You can also reach out to your audience and have a conversation with them. Or you can also do an online survey. Remember that most of a blog’s traffic is driven organically, so choose topics your audience will want to read, not something that will only interest you.

Giving up too soon

If you’ve been writing for several months now and you still haven’t seen a significant increase on your leads and traffic, you’re probably getting frustrated. I understand that it can get frustrating, but you also have to keep in mind that building a successful blog takes time. It requires a lot of hard work, patience, and perseverance.

You’ve spent countless of hours in front of your computer, trying to make boring stuff interesting. Unfortunately, after a few months of blogging, you’re still not seeing the results you want. At this point, you may feel like giving up. That’s understandable. However, please keep in mind that it may take quite a while before you generate positive results. Depending on the online competition and your industry, it may take about 3 to 6 months. Giving up too soon is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

Keep writing. Focus on creating high-quality posts. Be patient. Soon enough, you’ll get the results you want.

Final thoughts

Anyone can start a blog, but not everyone will be able to build a successful blog. Why? Because most business owners don’t give it the time, effort, and attention it needs.

If you’re struggling to get the results you want from your blog, then we’re here to help. Schedule a free consultation call and we’ll help you get more leads and traffic for your business.

4 Common Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

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5 Tips for Building a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Healthcare Practice

5 Tips for Building a Content Marketing Strategy for Your Healthcare Practice

The content marketing world is more competitive now than it has ever been before. Big brands, small businesses, influencers, and even healthcare professionals create their own content to reach more people online.

But with so many blog posts, videos, infographics, and other types of content online, it can be challenging to stand out. That’s what we’re going to talk about next.

When developing a content strategy for your healthcare practice, there are five things you need to keep in mind. Let’s dive into those now.

Know your audience

It is estimated that Google processes approximately 5.6 billion search queries every day. According to Google, 5% of those searches are health-related.

There is no shortage of content on the internet. But if you want to get in front of your target audience, you need to create content that is relevant and useful to them. To do that, you must get to know your audience on a deeper level.

Dig deep into what types of content they’re consuming and what topics they’re interested in. This way, you can align your content with your target audience’s specific needs and interests.

Establish your content marketing goals 

Let’s face it. It’s easy to get caught up in the who, what, how, and where of content marketing that people tend to forget about the most important question: why?

Every strategy should start with a specific goal in mind. So ask yourself. What do you want to achieve with your content? Are you hoping to capture more leads? Or maybe you’re looking to grow your brand awareness and social media presence.

By defining your goals, you can ensure that each piece of content works towards meeting those goals. Even better, you can keep track of your data and use them to improve your content marketing strategy in the long run.

Create a content messaging roadmap

Now that you have already created a buyer persona, established your goals, and set criteria for success, it’s time to start building a content messaging roadmap that can help move each persona through the sales funnel.

Patients who are visiting your site for the first time may be looking for a healthcare provider but aren’t ready to book an appointment with you yet. During this stage, getting their trust is of key importance. This is where educational content can help. Articles, podcasts, videos, and case studies can help position yourself as an expert and get potential patients’ trust.

Warmer prospects may have considered booking an appointment already but may still be looking around. At this stage, adding testimonials from other patients, answering frequently asked questions, and offering free consultations may be just what you need to seal the deal.

Make the most of your content 

You spent hours creating those content, so why not make the most out of them? You can repurpose your content to introduce them to new audiences who might prefer a different format.

For instance, you can turn your blog post into an infographic to make it easier to digest and understand. You can turn it into video content, which is perfect for those who prefer watching videos. Another option is to segment your blog post and publish it as a series on social media.

Identify the most relevant platforms 

So you spent so much time and effort researching and writing your content. You wanted to make sure that your audience would find it helpful and informative. But it won’t matter if no one has seen it.

The key is to identify which platforms your audience spends most of their time in. This can help give your content the best possible chance of being seen.

If most of your audience is on Instagram, start by creating an appealing image that would make users stop their scroll. But don’t just stop there. You should also write compelling captions that create more engagement.

Final thoughts

There is no denying that content marketing strategy works. It can help you reach more patients online, retain current patients, and even improve patient journeys. But for it to work, you need to have a well-defined and carefully thought out strategy. Otherwise, you’d be wasting a lot of time and effort creating content that won’t benefit your practice.

If you need help devising a content marketing strategy and plan or need some fresh ideas to include in your plan, we can help. Schedule a free consultation with us, and we’ll help you generate more traffic and leads for your healthcare practice with content marketing.

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5 Tips to Level Up Your Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy

5 Tips to Level Up Your Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy

Did you know that healthcare-related queries account for about 7% of all Google searches? According to David Feinberg, head of Google Health, they get approximately 70,000 healthcare queries every minute. This translates to about 1 billion searches a day.

With these statistics, it’s pretty clear that people need a trusted and reliable source of healthcare information. This is your chance to position your practice in front of potential patients.

Use these tips when creating a content marketing strategy for your healthcare practice.

Begin with the audience in mind

Content marketing is about attracting the right audience. To do that, you need to know your audience on a deeper level.

– Who is your ideal audience?

– What’s important to them?

– What are their most common concerns?

– How can you serve their needs?

Once you have a better understanding of your audience, it will be easier for you to craft messages that resonate with them. Plus, you’ll be able to speak their language. Remember, content marketing is about the reader, not your brand.

Set clear, measurable goals

Creating content for your practice can be overwhelming given the sheer volume of options you have. Blog posts, video content, social media posts, podcasts, and ebooks are just some of them.

But when creating content, it is essential to take the time and decide what you want to achieve from it. Simply writing and publishing blog posts is not enough. Getting views isn’t a clear goal either.

When creating content, ask yourself:

– Do you want to educate your audience and turn them into clients?

– Do you want to increase engagement and connect with potential clients?

– Do you want to build trust with your audience and position yourself as a thought leader?

Identify how your content can serve your audience and then create pieces that tie back to that.

Focus on your area of expertise 

Some organizations focus on a specific niche. Similarly, every doctor has an area of expertise. Before you start working on your content marketing strategy, it is best to define your area of focus and the main problem areas in your niche.

Start by listing down some of the main concerns and pain points that people in your niche struggle with. You can easily list down some topic ideas based on these problems.

For instance, an ophthalmologist can educate their audience about the dangers of working on a computer for extended periods. On the other hand, dentists can talk about the importance of flossing every day or how to brush teeth with braces properly.

You want to become the person your audience relies on when they need information related to your area of expertise.

Go beyond written content

Content marketing isn’t just limited to written formats. Many businesses are fighting for people’s attention, so you need to figure out how to stand out. The key is to diversify your content strategy.

With the rising popularity of videos, it is good to include videos in your content marketing strategy. You can share short and informative videos on social media. Or do a live Q&A. This will not only help educate your audience but also increase engagement. Other content ideas include infographics, podcasts, webinars, and quizzes.

Humanize your healthcare brand 

A patient is more than just a name on a medical chart. They’re someone’s son, daughter, parent, sibling, or spouse. You won’t win their loyalty unless you show them that you care.

People are more likely to engage and connect with you if they know a real person behind your practice. Post regularly on social media. Create some video content. Respond to comments. Make sure, though, that you have a clear policy to let people know that they should contact their physician or 911 in emergency cases.

We can help!

Content marketing has been proven to be highly effective. When done right, it can help you improve your online visibility, boost SEO, and even position yourself as an expert in your industry. Keep in mind, though, that results take time.

To reap all the benefits of content marketing, you need to do post content regularly. It usually takes about six to nine months for your content marketing efforts to bear fruit.

Feel free to reach out to us if you need help with your content marketing strategy. Whether you’re just starting or you’re hoping to double down on your content marketing efforts, we’re to help.

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation call with us. Let us help you create engaging content that attracts the right traffic and converts leads.

 

5 Tips to Level Up Your Healthcare Content Marketing Strategy

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5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Practice

5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Practice

Content marketing involves creating and sharing content that attracts and interests your target audience. The goal is to create high quality content that your audience will find valuable. When done right, it can convert prospects to patients or clients.

If you’re thinking of using content to attract patients and clients, it’s a great decision. By providing your audience with useful and relevant content, they are more likely to engage with you, share the content with their family and friends, and return for more. Not only will it capture the attention of your target audience, it will also help you build your credibility and position yourself as an industry leader.

As compared to other sectors, the healthcare market has shown a slow adaption rate when it comes to content marketing. By implementing a content strategy now, you’ll have less competition in your industry and get ahead of your competition.

Here are 5 content marketing ideas for your practice.

Blogging for Health and Wellness Practices

There may be lots of content out there, but they will never be enough to satisfy our thirst for knowledge.

Blogs are a great way to share new and relevant information while attracting new visitors to your stie. But before you start putting your content strategy into action, it is important that you know your audience well. The more effort you put into understanding your audience, the better you’ll be able to cater to their needs.

Keep your audience in mind when writing your content. Capture their attention by choosing topics they actually want to read about. If you’re a pediatrician, you can use your blog to offer insightful advice to parents, establish relationships with your audience, and attract new patients.

Once your blog is up and running, you’ll be surprised at the opportunities it brings. Establish your authority as a thought leader and you’ll find your practice climbing to the top search results.  

Interactive content for Medical Marketing

Content marketing doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation. Get your audience involved through interactive polls, quizzes, and challenges.

Let’s take UnitedHealthcare’s “We Dare You” campaign as an example. They were able to position themselves as a leading healthcare brand using this strategy. As part of their campaign, they provided their followers with quizzes and monthly challenges. The goal is to encourage people to make small changes and live healthier lives. Followers are then asked to share a photo of themselves performing that challenge.

“We Dare You” campaign received two silver awards – one for digital marketing and one for social media.

Patient spotlight series

Sharing patients’ stories and testimonials on your website is a great idea for the same reason Amazon user reviews are so powerful.

Unlike in retail industry, healthcare providers do not offer refund or “return services”. This is why patients conduct thorough research and read online reviews before booking an appointment with a healthcare provider. Without these reviews, you’ll be missing out on hundreds of new patients each year.

Make it easier for potential patients to choose you by shining a light on patient success stories. Patients trust other patients. And in success stories, you, your staff, and the facility are presented as capable. That’s what patients are looking for – a capable healthcare practitioner who can help them with their medical condition.

Video content in Healthcare Marketing

We don’t have to tell you how big video content is in today’s marketing world. People love videos. In fact, recent study shows that more than 500 million hours of videos are watched on Youtube every single day.

We believe that video would be an excellent marketing strategy for your health and wellness practice.

There is a wealth of video content ideas that you can explore – from sharing medical information to how-to videos.

If you’re a physical therapist, you can create a video series showing patients how to perform exercises at home. If you’re a yoga instructor, you can do some pose tutorials for different levels. Or talk about your personal experiences practicing yoga.

Infographics for Healthcare Data

People love information. But if you’re posting links to your blogs on social media, they might not even read them. Why? Because most people have a short attention span. They want to get the information they want without too much exerting too much effort. They want content that are easy to digest and understand. This is where infographics come in.

Infographics are more eye-catching than plain texts. They contain both photos and content, which naturally draw the eye. Infographics are also extremely shareable. Every click or share means more people seeing your content.

Overall, infographics are a fun, engaging medium that can generate a unique connection with your target market.

5 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Practice

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How to Use Content Marketing to Build Trust and Credibility

If you’re the content person for your brand, you’re probably busy creating pieces of content that aims to give out information about your products or services. You may also be focused in writing content that tell about your brand’s story. Amidst the churning out of content, have you ever stopped to think about why people choose to buy from your company? The answer is simple. It’s because they trust your company.

Whether you’re creating content for your clients, existing customers or new prospects, it is important to keep in mind that the real purpose of content marketing is to build greater levels of trust with your audience. Trust and credibility are important to win the loyalty of your customers.

Use these tips to create content that will help you enter your customer’s world and become an important part of it:

Put people first

In order to build trust and enhance your influence, you need to remember who you’re writing for. The content you create should be relevant to the people you are trying to communicate with. Know their demographics, determine your niche focus and stick with it.

Deliver high quality and relevant content to your audience on a regular basis. Overtime, people will see your brand as a trusted authority. They’ll keep coming back for more once they see you as a trustworthy source.

Be consistent

People don’t have an idea how reliable you are unless they start working with you. But by observing your activities and posting schedule, they can decide whether or not they can rely on you.

Choose your social media channels carefully and commit to being there regularly. Also, make it habit to post new content on your blog and update your site from time to time. By turning up regularly and publishing high quality and relevant contents on a regular basis, you will start to earn the confidence of your marketplace.

Interact with your audience

Newsletters, social media updates and blog posts are a great way for your audience to stay up-to-date with your business. But it’s not supposed to be a one-way communication. Find ways to interact with your audience online.

You can ask questions, encourage them to send photos of them with your products, share their stories etc. Don’t forget to respond to mentions on social media and reply to comments on your blog. Through this strategy, you’ll be able to build a relationship with your target audience. Through this relationship, they will come to trust you.

How to Use Content Marketing to Build Trust and Credibility

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4 Social Media Habits to Avoid

social-media-habits-to-avoidSocial media has been an integral part of our lives. Since most people check on their social media accounts several times a day, having a stellar social presence is essential for your business’ growth. Most business owners, however, tend to develop some bad habits that prevent them from growing their audience.

Start by determining your bad habits and try to correct them before they cause any more harm. Here are 4 social media habits you need to stop doing right now.

Too much sales pitch content

Most people follow your brand because they find your content informative, valuable or entertaining. Either way, these people are interested in the content you share. Although we understand that you are running a business and you are looking to increase your sales, it’s definitely not a good idea to bombard your followers with advertisements. If you do so, you are likely to lose your followers.

For your brand to succeed on social media, you need to develop a good relationship with your fans and followers. Focus on engagement, rather than selling.

Posting too much

Being active on social media can help you build a strong online presence. You need to post consistently to keep your followers engaged and to stay relevant, but that doesn’t mean that you should post about something every hour. If you do so, people are likely to unfollow you because of the torture you put them through.

Post at least once a day and focus on content that your fans and followers are interested in. Eventually, you’ll be making friends and earning followers fast.

Not determining your brand

In order to build an online presence, you first need to define your business’ personality. Ask yourself how you want people to envision you. Also, define a consistent brand voice to drive consistency in your content creation efforts. Even if people view your content on different channels, you want to make sure that they could identify the content as coming from your brand.

Abusing the hashtag

Hashtags are a great way of categorizing content, providing context or curating information. Sure, hashtags can be powerful when used correctly. They generate attention and help you gain more followers, but too many hashtags in a single post can be distracting. Plus, it takes away from the message you’ve posted. Stop hashtag abuse!

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Reasons Why High Quality Content Still Matters

content creationContent is the new method of advertising. Over the years, business owners and marketers have realized the importance of utilizing content in their marketing strategy. Because of this, most companies have made a commitment to push content out there to keep feeding the masses with information. Audiences today, however, have wised up. That said, the importance of quality content cannot be stressed enough.

Forget about the dry press release and the hard sell. Rather, provide your audience with good content that they can to share with others.

Here are 3 reasons why high quality content still matters

Helps improve your ranking on search engines

Every user is searching for content in some form or another. Some businesses, however, think that the more content they have, the better their chances are of appearing in Google or other search engines. What they fail to realize is that quality is one of the key ingredients of a successful content marketing.

Google’s primary goal is to provide users the best results possible. Search engines are getting better at sniffing out bad content. Google, for instance, constantly update their algorithms to ensure that top-ranking sites contain high quality and relevant information. Just having something on your site is not necessarily good.

First impressions matter

In this digital age, people first visit your website and read through your content to decide whether you’re a credible business. It is often the first interaction a prospective customer has with your brand. Hence, it is important to take time to make your website as appealing as possible.

If your site is full of bad writing and grammatical errors, users are likely to migrate away from your site. Remember, contents that aren’t well written convey incompetence and laziness. These are two things you certainly don’t want associated with your business.

Attention is getting harder to grab

With professional services firms now churning out more content than ever, there is far more marketplace noise to cut through in order to capture the attention of your target audience. Companies that provide high quality content are those that are succeeding in reaching their audiences and converting their visitors into paying customers.

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Reasons Why Your Content Marketing is Failing

Flat design vector illustration concept of computer and connected mobile devices with links of transmission information on various data storages and cloud computing service. Isolated on stylish colored background.

So you set up a blog. You were so thrilled at the prospect of sharing your expertise with an eager audience. You started creating valuable content assets and created a few downloadable pieces. You have done everything experts said you should, and yet you’re conversion rate isn’t increasing.

Here are 3 things that might be affecting your content conversion rates.

You’re attracting the wrong type of traffic

If you’re successfully driving people to your blog or website, but your conversions aren’t increasing, you’re probably targeting the wrong people.

Some people assume that an increase in traffic means an increase in conversion rate, but that’s not always the case. While visits, email sign ups and exposures are all great to see, they are not going to make much of a difference to your bottom line. You want conversions. In order to turn traffic into conversion, you need to attract the right kind of traffic.

Your calls to action suck

If conversion is the goal of your content marketing, then you need to create a compelling call-to-action. Most blog posts, however, do not have a call-to-action. Even if your messaging is consistent and you’ve hit the right audience, visitors won’t advance further into their buyer’s journey without a clear call-to-action.

Telling your readers where to click, what they can get in exchange of their email address and how to take advantage of your offer can noticeably increase your conversion rates.

You think SEO is not important

There are lots of great content out there. But the problem is that these contents do not reach their desired audience. Why? It’s because they have taken SEO for granted.

SEO is a vital part of content marketing. This will help your content rank in search engines; thus, bringing it closer to your intended users. All you need is a little bit of keyword search and a few minutes to put proper title tags, meta descriptions, tags etc.

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Tips for Writing a Killer Call-to-Action

bimspicIt’s not easy to get people to visit your site. Once you’ve hooked your audience, you want them to stay a little longer in your site and do something. That something could be sharing your content, providing information, downloading something, adding products to their shopping cart or purchase your products. Unfortunately, most people will not know what to do unless you give them clear instructions.

This week, we’ll be sharing with you some tips on how to create a clear and effective call-to-action. Here are a few.

Offer a free trial or download

Sometimes, you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage people to complete a call-to-action. One of the best ways to capture the attention of people is to offer them something of value, and give it to them for free. Offer a free e-book or a free trial. People will thank you for it.

Size matters

Size does play a huge part in getting your call-to-action button noticed. Make sure it’s big enough that online users won’t miss them, but not too big that it looks like a monstrosity. Remember, your call-to-action needs to be sized sensibly. You should also consider the position of your call-to-action on the page.

Be direct

Keep your call-to-action short and simple to ensure that majority of visitors will click-through on the action you ask them to. If you want people to leave their email address, then tell it to them straight. Make sure people will understand it at just a glance. Don’t get all whimsical and critic.

Add a sense of urgency

If you have reduced the price of your products, let visitors know that the offer is only good for a limited time. If they do not purchase within the specified period of time, then it will result in a missed opportunity. Add a sense of urgency and include words such as today, immediately or now.

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Content Marketing: Tips for Generating Fresh and Relevant Content

BIMS blogYou only have a few seconds to capture the attention of your target audience. Think about the books you’ve began and the articles you’ve read in the past. Through the first few sentences, people will decide whether they want to spend more time to read your content. With so much articles posted on the web, you can’t expect people to invest so much of their time trying to overcome a tepid introduction.

Despite the intense competition, some people were able to generate thousands of laser-targeted visitors to their sites. If you’ve ever wondered how they did that, then you’re in for a real treat.

Here are some tips to help you generate fresh content and increase the popularity of your site.

Find other blogs to read

Set aside 10 minutes of your time browsing through other blogs in the same niche. This will help ensure that you have fresh content ideas when you’re ready to sit down and create new contents for your site. Take what you find and make it even better.

Don’t be afraid to dedicate more time everyday to read other’s blog posts. Mind you, the best writers spend majority of their time reading and learning how to inject different voices into their work.

Pinterest

If you’ll be hanging out on the same platforms as your competitors, there’s a good chance that you’ll be writing the same old stuff.

Pinterest actually drives more traffic as compared to Youtube, LinkedIn and Google+. So, focus there and use it for content mining.

Pinterest pins are ranked according to likes, comments and repins. So, keep an eye out for topics with the most number of repins.

Check the comments section

If you have an active community on your blog, then make it a point to read the comments.

Your site should focus on your visitor’s interest and address the question of what’s in it for them. By listening to what others have to say, you’ll be able to pick up some ideas to write for your next blog post.

However, if no one is commenting on your posts, we suggest reading the comments on other blogs within the industry.

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