how to make your hospital stand out with a blog r150415
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H O W T O M A K EYO U R H O S P I TA L
…W I T H A B L O G
Stand Out
A publication of
We wrote this ebook to highlight best practices in hospital blogging. We hope it helps you improve your blog, if you have one, or sparks your interest in starting one if you don’t.
If you ever want to discuss blogging, please contact us. We love to talk about blogging and all forms of content marketing.
Here are some best practices for hospital blogs we identified from reviewing 375 blogs (and 935 websites).
• Having a blog is a good start: Only 40% of the 935 hospital websites we reviewed had blogs. So merely having a blog is one way to stand out.
• Search engines and people like blogs: Research from HubSpot shows that companies with blogs get more traffic than those that don’t. Hospitals don’t seem to be an exception to this rule.
• We believe hospital marketers do like blogs: We think that most hospital marketers buy into content marketing but struggle with blogging because they lack the time or their team lacks the capability to write one.
• The best blogs combine magnetic content with simple good looks: Our favorite hospital blogs showcase compelling content that is neither overly-technical nor self-promoting. They feature relevant posts like health and exercise tips and patient stories, and they integrate different media in intuitive, easy-to-navigate designs.
• 10 winning examples: We picked our 10 favorite blogs and present them to you in this ebook along with the reasons we like them. We hope these examples help you in developing your blog.
Summary
Search engines and people like blogs
According to Hubspot, companies that blog 15 or more times per month (3-4 times per week) get 5 times more traffic than companies that don’t blog.
Even better, the blogging effect is cumulative. As you blog, you build up an inventory of posts that increase your traffic in a compound way over time.
How To Make Your Hospital Stand Out…With A Blog
According to research conducted by Google, more than 75 percent of patients use search engines when they research hospitals. Search engines like blogs because they provide readers with fresh content.
Adding a blog to your website will almost certainly improve your overall ranking for many keywords, especially those related to conditions and treatments that you cover on your blog. As your website appears higher in search results for more and more keywords, traffic to your site will rise.
Blogs help Google
find you
How To Make Your Hospital Stand Out…With A Blog
Whether you’re publishing tips for staying healthy during the height of flu season or responding to national storylines like last summer’s Ebola panic, a blog is the perfect place to share important medical information with members of your local community.
There’s more space and more flexibility on a blog than on your website, so there’s no better way to position your hospital as a leading source of information for people in your area.
People share content they find relevant and informative. Once your community learns about the valuable information on your blog, you can expect your website traffic to increase as word spreads both online and off.
Blogs help you connect
with your community
How To Make Your Hospital Stand Out…With A Blog
We reviewed 935 hospital websites to make this ebook. Only 40% of the hospitals we researched had blogs. Or to put it another way, 60% of hospitals do NOT have a blog.
The data in the previous section shows that blogs are a useful tool for growing your website traffic. The leaders in the use of social media know this and have a blog—or often several blogs (the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic, for example).
So why don’t more hospitals have blogs? We don’t yet know the definitive answer, but here are our thoughts:
Many hospitals don’t have a blog
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Hospital marketing teams are short on time
Many hospitals don’t have blogs because many hospitals don’t have blogs!
Hospital marketers don’t agree that blogs are useful
Hospital marketing teams don’t have enough writers
Hospital marketers are placing their bets on other media
Blogging takes time. Given the myriad of projects hospital marketers have on their plate, it’s not so surprising that blogging may get shelved.
This is something you’ll see in many early stage markets. Some marketers may believe their hospital doesn’t need a blog because their competitors don’t have one either.
Content marketing is not always a quick win. It’s a cumulative effort that pays large dividends in the long term. Some marketers don’t agree with the data above that blogs are useful.
Writing skills vary. Some marketers don’t like to write or may not have the writing skills on their team. Physicians may feel they have too much to do to write a blog post. These marketers may need to get outside help.
Some hospital marketing sources say social media is mandatory, and these discussions point to Facebook, not blogging. Other marketers still rely on print media like newsletters as the only way to distribute their content.
How To Make Your Hospital Stand Out…With A Blog
10 hospitals doing it right
What if you think your hospital should have a blog, or you do have a blog and think it could be better? What are the best practices for making a great hospital blog?
We took a look through the 375 hospital blogs we found in our research and identified the hospitals we think are doing blogging the right way. We’ve documented our 10 favorite hospital blogs (in alphabetical order) in the pages that follow and explained why we like each one.
We hope these great examples will inspire you to start a blog if you don’t have one or tweak your existing blog to make it even better.
How To Make Your Hospital Stand Out…With A Blog
Common themes in
great hospital
blogs
We found some common themes in these top 10 blogs that you should keep in mind when building or improving your blog:
• Tell stories: People have always gravitated to stories. This is true online as readers have the ability to share great stories via social media. Tell as many stories as you can to maximize your social impact.
• Use photos in your posts: We came across many hospital blog posts without any images. People love images online (think Instagram and Facebook!). They also break up blocks of text. Use photos generously…and please avoid using only a photo of the author— that’s so dull after a few posts.
• Be approachable: A key to success in blogging is to keep readers coming back week-after-week. Relevant topics like health, eating and exercise tips keep people coming back for more. Sprinkle in some patient stories and we’ll keep coming back time and time again.
• Break it up: People “scan” online. Most people don’t feel comfortable reading long form prose on a computer or tablet (let alone a phone.) So break up your blog posts with lots of subheads that make it easy to scan.
• Create an attractive template: A well-designed template goes a long way towards making your blog enticing to read. Use some color but also leave plenty of white space so people can read in comfort.
• ...but don’t go overboard with design: We found some blogs that were clearly trying to create an interesting visual presentation but just ended up being hard to read, especially on mobile devices. Good design is great but keep your blog super-intuitive for the reader.
• Remember your goals: Is your blog just for branding, or do you want readers to take action (e.g. book an appointment with a physician or sign up for a class)? If you want a reader to take action, you need a “call to action” (and usually more than one). Most hospital blogs we reviewed were sorely lacking in calls to action.
• Keep your blog on “home base”: You only get full credit from Google for blog posts that are on your domain, so you want your blog to be located at yourwebsiteaddress.com/blog or blog.yourwebsiteaddress.com You don’t want your blog to live on yourhospitalname.blogspot.com because your website won’t get any SEO credit. In fact, you’ll have to do SEO work for two websites instead of one. We found quite a lot of hospital blogs that weren’t on “home base.”
How To Make Your Hospital Stand Out…With A Blog
Integration of video: The Healthcare & You blog takes its content to the next level with the inclusion of a range of videos. The videos are cleverly woven into the blog’s home page.
More about the videos: Not only are the videos well integrated into the blog but their content is great too. They include some very appealing patient stories that are sure to draw plenty of views and time on the site.
Featured story image: The full width image for the featured story is particularly appealing. It looks great and gives the blog a modern design feel.
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1Adventist Healthcare Healthcare & Youhttp://blog.adventisthealthcare.com/
Great titles: The titles of the blog posts on health enews are outstanding. We simply couldn’t resist clicking on “The day the sky turned gray,” a great title for a blog post that didn’t disappoint. It turned out to be a must-read patient story full of emotional impact.
More about the stories: This blog had some of the best stories anywhere. The patient stories had all the elements that draw a reader in and the health care tips focused on important subjects like vaccinations that were both current and relevant. Some really great writing here.
Classic design: The blog is well designed and totally intuitive. You know exactly what to do without any explanation. The images for each post are attractive and well matched to the stories.
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Advocate Health Care health enewshttp://www.ahchealthenews.com/category/blog-posts
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Call to action: The blog features a well-designed email signup button. It’s clearly phrased and designed in a strong color to stand out.
Interesting health tips: There are plenty of health tips that we found accessible and content rich. We also found a great sprinkling of recipes, which we know from our own experience are popular with many readers.
Nice use of images: The blog’s home page uses images generously. The main “banner” is attractive and well-supplemented by pleasing feature story images.
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3Baptist Health South Florida Health, Life & Communityhttps://baptisthealth.net/baptist-health-news
Intuitive design: The home page for The Beaumont Blog is easy to understand. Most readers will know what to do. One issue we encountered with some blogs is “over design” that made it less obvious what to do.
Appealing images: The Beaumont Blog features colorful images that are appropriate for the articles they represent. Some of the blogs we reviewed had posts with no images, images that were essentially logos, or images that were used multiple times, making stories visually indistinguishable.
Approachable blog topics: The blog covers topics that are accessible to the average patient, like workouts and healthy eating. There’s also a nice balance of topics.
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Beaumont Health SystemThe Beaumont Bloghttp://blog.beaumont.edu
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Large attractive images: The Cincinnati Children’s Blog makes large photos the central object on each page,, even the home page. This draws your eye to the story.
Call to action: The blog has a prominent “subscribe” area. Many hospital blogs we reviewed had no call to actions at all or they did not stand out. Without calls to action your blog cannot fully help you attract prospective patients.
Colorful design: The blog has a colorful design that makes it visually appealing while still keeping the stories on an easy-to-read white background.
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Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Cincinnati Children’s Bloghttp://cincinnatichildrensblog.org/
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Simple design: The Share the Health blog is a great example of how “less is more.” It utilizes a simple template that works because it’s totally intuitive.
Approachable stories: The blog features accessible health tips intersperced with stories about the hospital.
Subheads: Most of the posts use subheads generously. Subheads are essential as people tend to scan blog posts instead of reading them from beginning to end.
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Frederick Memorial Hospital Share the Healthhttp://blog.fmh.org
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Calls to Action: The @Jeff blog means to get things done, with several calls to action prominently featured. We particularly like the design of the “Appointments” and “Call Us” buttons, which are in a prime position on the top right of the blog. Also note the nice “Classes and Events” button on the bottom of the right “rail.”
Featured story: The featured story module is visually striking, especially with the bold blue title background. We imagine this story gets plenty of clicks.
The stories are good too: Not only is the @Jeff blog nicely designed, but the blog posts are right on. They include patient stories and health tips that drew us in immediately.
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Jefferson University Hospitals @Jeffhttp://blogs.jefferson.edu/atjeff
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Attractive design: Health eNews uses a handsome color palette that draws the reader into its content.
Inventive placement of video: The blog’s template incorporates videos in the right hand rail, encouraging the user to hit “play”. This undoubtedly adds to the time visitors spend on the site.
Clear article formatting: Posts on Health eNews use subheads generously, making them easy to ‘scan” for time-challenged readers (i.e. everyone!).
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8Little Company of Mary Health eNewshttp://lcmhealthnews.org
Calls to action: The Healthy Living blog features two clear calls to action on every page, one a way to join the hospital’s email list and the other an area where patients can submit a question to an expert/physician. Nicely done.
Clean design: The blog has a clean design with plenty of white space balanced with attractive color images in both the template and the posts.
Accessible stories: Healthy Living features posts covering topics that appeal to a wide range of the community, including patient stories, health tips and recipes.
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9Loyola University Health SystemHealthy Livinghttp://www.loyolahealthyliving.org
Toney design: The Health Beat blog uses color tones in a very appealing way. It makes the stories attractive and approachable.
Call to action: There’s a prominent and nicely-designed “subscribe” button on the top right of every page on the blog. Your blog is there to accomplish something, and call to action buttons like this one can help you reach your marketing goals.
Nice health tips: The blog is home to many easy-to-read health tips. The content of these stories paired with the blog’s great design made the reading experience a real pleasure.
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10Spectrum HealthHealth Beathttp://healthbeat.spectrumhealth.org
About the authors
Nigel EdelshainNigel Edelshain is Wainscot Media’s head of digital media and marketing. He is responsible for delivering digital marketing programs to Wainscot’s clients and promoting the company’s offerings through all channels. Nigel has developed a large following for his own blog, sales2.com. He has an undergraduate degree in microchip design and an MBA from the Wharton business school.
Nigel Edelshain201 573 [email protected]
Richard IurilliRich Iurilli is a marketing associate at Wainscot Media. He works with digital marketing techniques on a daily basis to promote Wainscot’s own brands and those of its clients. Rich has studied everything from programming and network administration to Old English and Latin. He earned his degree in English from Rutgers University. His last name is pronounced you-really.
Richard Iurilli201 746 [email protected]
How To Make Your Hospital Stand Out…With A Blog
If you’d like to talk blogging…
We’re blogging every day on our own blog. We’re marketing every day too. If you’d like to talk over some ideas on how to most effectively use blogs in your marketing mix or any other marketing tactics, please give us a call or email us.
Nigel Edelshain201 573 [email protected]
Richard Iurilli201 746 [email protected]
We’re not on a sales quota—but we do love to talk to smart marketers, especially in the healthcare field.