Regular blogging doesn’t have to be a waste of time. It should not be. Yet in the healthcare sector, getting website owners to put time and effort into blogging seems like pulling teeth. This, despite the fact that the internet is starving for high quality healthcare information. The problem seems to be that blogging takes too much time.
A survey of over four hundred business executives from a few years back shows that 93% did not blog because the time commitment was too much. Yet the benefits of blogging are indisputable:
- 77% of all web users regularly read blog posts
- 67% of regular bloggers say their content is successful
- 61% of web users say they have bought something after reading a blog.
In the healthcare sector, these statistics might be less impactful because of the nature of the business. We think of healthcare as more altruistic, so does it really matter that people buy things after reading blogs? Actually, it does.
Maximizing the Time Spent
The average blog post is now between 1500 and 2000 words. The typical professional blogger spends about four hours writing a post. Unless blogging is your only occupation, you can’t spend half your day putting together a 1500-word post. You don’t have to.
Webtek Digital Marketing is a digital marketing agency with offices in Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX. They say it is possible to put in considerably less time and still craft quality blog posts that get results. Here are their tips for doing so:
1. Compile Facts and Questions
Coming up with new topics for every post is one of the hardest things about regularly blogging. Webtek recommends compiling a list of facts and questions. The facts are facts about your particular business or industry. Questions are related to the facts at hand. They are questions people normally ask about your organization or the services you provide. Compiling them gives you an unlimited supply of topic ideas.
2. Create an Outline
Create a basic outline that all your blog posts will follow. You will have an introduction with a thesis statement and hook. You will have two or three body paragraphs to develop that thesis. You will have a conclusion and potentially a call to action.
Creating a consistent outline lets you approach each new post without having to guess its structure. You will know how to develop the ideas. With practice, it will become second nature. You’ll spend more time writing and less time wondering what your post should look like.
3. Edit After 15 Minutes
Do not make the mistake of waiting a full day to edit your posts. Sit back, wait 15 minutes, and go right to editing. Then wait another 15 minutes and edit a second time. Going a full day between edits simply bogs the process down. There is no practical benefit to waiting so long.
4. Build a Resource Database
Finally, build a resource database as you blog. Every time you find a new reference source for information, enter it into a spreadsheet or type it into a document. Building a resource database will give you quick access to the information you need for new posts so that you don’t have to spend so much time searching.
It isn’t necessary to spend four hours per post to get good results. If blogging is all you do for living, fine. But as a healthcare professional, you probably have more important things to do. You can make the best use of your time and still create productive blogs that people want to read.