Write Compelling Healthcare Blog Posts that Drive Physician Leads

If you’re looking to drive leads with healthcare content, your timing couldn’t be better. Healthcare is an incredibly personal topic that continues to attract huge amounts of traffic and high engagement. In fact, Google gets over 1 billion health-related questions every day. That translates into 70,000 requests each minute - around 7 percent of all daily searches.

If someone experiences a health issue - especially one they haven’t had before - they’ll likely start looking for answers on Google. They want only quality advice when it comes to their health, obviously, so it’s a big opportunity for physicians and other healthcare providers.

As a physician, you’re uniquely positioned to provide quality content that delivers value and drives leads. By sharing your expertise and giving advice, you can give reputable answers and draw in many potential clients.

Create a Healthcare Content Plan

​Whether you want to write the content yourself or collaborate with a writer, you need a plan to guide your effort. The first step to create that plan is to write the most common issues your potential clients have.

​For example, people search Google for information about:
●      A specific disease or medical problem
●      A certain medical treatment, therapy, or procedure
●      Prescription or over-the-counter medications
●      Doctors and other healthcare professionals’ experience and expertise
●      Alternative treatments.

​Try exploring each topic in-depth to make your content as useful as possible. For example, when writing about a certain disease, you can share your expertise in these areas:
●      Answers to the most common questions your patients had
●      The most effective treatments and medications
●      Coping strategies
●      Tips to improve the quality of life
●      Advice on preventing complications.

​The last step would be to arrange all topics in a logical order. Write all topics in a document and assign approximate publishing dates. That’s it, your healthcare content plan is complete.

More healthcare topics for your content:
●      9 Healthcare Marketing Blogs You Need to Follow

Write in Plain Language

The instructions and explanations I give are easy to understand.

​That’s how many healthcare professionals think, and this is where they often miss the mark. If the same is true for healthcare content, most people won’t read it.

​In fact, low health literacy impacts 90 percent of U.S. adults, which means they have difficulty understanding even everyday health information. This is a major reason why they turn online for answers, so the last thing they want to see is more confusing information.

​Writing in plain language means being empathetic and helpful.
Here are examples.

​Complex Language	Plain Language
​Analgesic	​Painkiller
​Abdomen	​Stomach
​Aggravate	​Make worse
​Alleviate	​Soften, ease
​Discoloration	​Change in color
​Imperative	Important

Try to explain everything in everyday language like this. One way to keep content “conversational” and focused is to use a “question-answer” format

​Here’s an example.
This blog post from Medical News Today, a reputable healthcare information site, explains diabetes. We can apply the “question-answer” format and see the logical order followed by the article.

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​Note how the main explanation has a larger font to help the reader find the answer quickly. That’s a good trick that many healthcare bloggers use.

​Important thing: many medical topics are hard to deliver in simple language - even for healthcare professionals. In this case, a good idea is to use writing help tools like TrustMyPaper, Grammarly, or TopEssayWriting. They can simplify content regardless of how complicated the subject. 

​Back to structuring content. Need ideas for doing so in the “question-answer” format?

​Go to Google, search for a topic, and take a look at “People Also Ask” section. It’s based on real searches, so you’ll be literally writing in “the language of the people.” Besides, this way, you can attract more leads because Google is familiar with these terms.

​Here’s People Also Ask has for “Insulin” search.

​Already, you have a few ideas to build your article!

Break Down Your Text

​This is a great strategy to help your readers understand your content. People reading your blog want your help, so writing huge blocks of texts isn't a reader-friendly way to present information.

​To make your articles easier to read, try:
●  Breaking down your text with bolded subheadings
●  Using bullet points to list items
●  Keeping paragraphs limited to three lines of text.

​Medical News Today also follows this best practice.

​Take a look at this section from a typical article from them. The text is presented in a way that’s easy to scan and understand.

​This is how you should also format your content.

​Simple structures are exactly what your potential leads are looking for, so try to follow this writing process steps:
●  Choose the “questions” for article structure before writing
●  Check if the questions follow a logical order
●  Begin writing.

Go Beyond Basic Information

Imagine a situation.

John, a police officer, is looking for medical advice.

He needs to take a drug twice a day, according to the prescription. For some reason, John feels like the medication isn’t helping even when he takes it regularly.

He goes online, finds your blog, and reads an article about the drug he’s taking. It says that John must maintain a certain level of that medication in the bloodstream around the clock for it to work.
​
Now, he realizes what the problem is. John’s schedule was pretty hectic due to his night shifts, so he took both pills before them. He thought that he might forget to take the second one because he’d be exhausted after the night.

This is a good example of how quality healthcare content can help. To build a reputation and help people like John, always try to:
●  Explain every topic in-depth by going beyond basic information
●  Consider real-life situations to help readers understand your points
●  Minimize the use of complex medical terminology and always give links to explanations where possible.

​Don’t forget to advise readers to check with their healthcare providers before making any decisions. Your role is to educate and help.

Write Patient Stories

​Caring is everything in healthcare. For your content strategy, it can easily become the theme of the most popular articles. By describing the stories of caring for your patients, and you were able to help, you can:
●  Improve your reputation
●  Increase credibility and trust
●  Make it easier for potential clients to connect with you

​The best healthcare blogs feature patient stories. Mayo Clinic has a section called @SharingMayoClinic, where they describe the challenges their patients faced.

Your blog should also have articles like these. They’re incredible stories of amazing individuals who overcome tremendous challenges thanks to skilled healthcare professionals.

​And who’s the best person to share the stories of your patients? You, of course.

​Try asking a client of yours to be featured in a blog post like this. Getting consent is critical, obviously, so discuss all the details you can use.

Update Your Content

​As a health care professional, you know how important it is to give your patients the latest information and advice. Health recommendations, treatments, and standards of care change all the time, so updating your blog posts is critical to the success of your content strategy.

​One good strategy is to create an online spreadsheet. List all of your blog articles with publishing dates and set a date for a revisit.

How often should you update your healthcare blog posts?

​A good start is once every three to six months. But should there any important changes arise, try to make revisions as soon as possible. Spreading outdated medical advice or, even worse, misinformation will be harmful to your reputation and trust.

Drive Leads with Healthcare Content

​Can you drive leads with content?

Yes.

​Many people in your area are using Google to get medical advice, so you should be there for them. Content lead generation with quality, patient-focused content has already become an effective way of marketing healthcare services for many, and this should be true for you, too. 

​Follow these tips to structure your future content strategy and ensure the quality of articles. As you become more experienced in writing, you’ll see what works better, so your performance will only improve.

Marques Coleman is a content specialist at EssayAssistant and a part-time editor at SupremeDissertations. He is an expert researcher on content marketing for GrabMyEssay. Marques loves all things about marketing and learning about healthy nutrition.