As a hearing professional, you’ve got a lot of knowledge to share. Sharing it online is good for your readers, and even better for your business. In fact, one of the most effective ways to build a strong online presence is by creating valuable content on a regular basis.
High-quality blogs and articles encourage more people to find your website, keep people on your webpages longer, are likely to be shared with other online users, and increase the number of important keywords across your website. All of this helps boost your ranking in search results, thus making your website more visible online. Content marketing, as it’s often called, is one of the easiest search engine optimization (SEO) tactics you can employ. It’s why you’ve heard us say it time and again: content is king.
But before you jet off and quickly produce blogs about cerumen and tinnitus, take a quick look at the foundations of high-quality content first. Below, we’ve outlined the essential elements that all of your content should include, ensuring you don’t end up wasting your time.
Let’s face it: there’s no shortage of information on the Internet. Producing run-of-the-mill content will not serve your goal of reaching more people online. But creating enticing content also doesn’t need to take you all day. Just combine the wisdom below with your wide pool of useful knowledge on hearing health and you’ll be well on your way!
Choose your topics wisely
You are bringing a wealth of knowledge to your keyboard every time you sit down to create content for your website, so how do you choose which topic to expand upon? As we’ve mentioned before, looking up frequently searched keywords (especially long-tail keywords) is a helpful strategy for figuring out what people are interested in learning online these days. It’s also a great way to know which words to use throughout your content in general.
But you actually have an even easier source of topic generation in front of you nearly every day: your patients! Consider what questions they’re most commonly asking and what information they’re most surprised to learn during your visits with them. Your prospective patients reading your blogs online aren’t much different and will likely share a similar interest.
Craft an attractive headline
This tip is well-known, but taken for granted. It’s likely more the result of “writer bias” than laziness, but the truth is, no matter how much you like “Everything You Need to Know About Cerumen” as an all-encompassing title, it just doesn’t provide the pull your headlines need to have. First of all, very few people are looking up “cerumen” and most people don’t realize they’d even be interested in earwax anyhow. A title like, “The Secret Powers of Earwax” on the other hand, creates curiosity and immediately works on overcoming the idea that earwax is somehow “gross.”
Don’t be afraid to be bold with your headlines, tackling the underlying emotions of the topic at hand. And try to do it in 6 words or less. A good approach is to challenge yourself to create 5 different headlines for the same article. Then, either pass them by your office staff, or give yourself a break before looking at them again, and select the one that stands out most.
Get vulnerable
With the overabundance of information online these days, people have become incredibly selective with what they read. Just look at your own habits and what you tend to click on when scrolling. Trends vary across age brackets and cultures, of course, but one theme remains throughout: personal material pulls people in.
Don’t worry, we’re not telling you to spill your deepest secrets on your professional blog (there are other websites for that), but we are encouraging you to dare to include parts of your own story throughout your writing. It’s simple really: people enjoy reading material from those they can relate to. Especially with regards to hearing health, people enjoy a perspective that really gets what they’re going through. the emotions involved, the nuances of the struggle, the hope they’re afraid to let in. Luckily, whether you’ve dealt with hearing problems or not, you’re well-positioned to have a deep understanding of these finer details. Even describing your personal experience treating various patients (keeping them anonymous of course) is enough to remind your readers that you’re a real person who understands what they’re going through.
Add a visual
Great written content is important, but getting people to click on your posts that you might share on your social media accounts, like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn means that you’ll definitely want to consider adding an image or enticing diagram to your blog. Posts with a visual component get far more attention than written posts, and since getting your post shared on these platforms can be a huge boon to your website traffic, it’s worth the extra effort.
As for selecting an image, be very wary of just pulling anything offline. While it may seem unlikely, copyright lawsuits are increasingly common online and definitely not worth the headache (or high price tag). There are numerous websites offering images with free licenses for you to peruse, but best of all is to simply take a photo of something related with your phone. Yes, your phone! Trends show that personal images get much more attention than obvious stock photos do, so don’t sweat about trying to get the lighting and angle perfect. Remember our tip about being vulnerable (aka: real) and shoot whatever you think is best.
Ready to produce some great content? You have everything you need to begin bringing new eyes and potential patients to your website with all the information you have to share. The most important rule with content creation is to simply be consistent with it. Try to schedule it into your calendar so you don’t’ end up putting it off week after week. After a short while of consistently producing helpful and enticing content, you’ll be surprised by how many people come back regularly for more!
