Do you get the feeling that your medical practice needs its own blog, but you’re not quite how to write a blog post? Have a lot on your mind that you’d like to share online, but you just don’t know where to start?
A blog is an essential feature in the age of content marketing. Every brand should have a blog if they have any desire to reach people digitally and grow their online presence. Your medical practice is no exception.
If you don’t already have a blog of your own, it might be because you’re not confident in your blogging abilities, don’t have the time, or are simply putting it off. Whatever the case may be, we’re here to help!
Today, we’re going to show you how to write a blog post in seven simple steps. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Identify your audience
Before you learn how to write a blog post, you need to make sure you have a clear understanding of your target audience. Asking a few of the following questions will help you develop a plan for your blog content.
Who is your target audience? What do they want to know about? What will resonate with them?
This is where our Patient Avatar comes in handy. Consider what you know about your patients and their interests while you’re coming up with a topic for your blog post.
Step 2: Start with a topic and working title
Next, you need a topic and title for your blog post. Don’t feel as though your topic or title need to be laser-focused at first.
For example, if you’re a dentist who specializes in TMJ cases, your first thought might be to start writing about TMD surgery. From there, come up with a few different working titles. In this case, you might decide on, “Does your Jaw hurt?” and “When a Clicking Jaw is a Sign of TMJ” as working titles.
These title options will help guide your post as you begin writing.
Step 3: Write your introduction
You should always look to grab the reader’s attention in the first few sentences of your post. There are a few ways in which this can be accomplished.
You can start off with a joke or a fun fact. You can begin with a story or anecdote. Most importantly, always engage your audience by presenting a real problem that they might have. After all, this is why people are online – to find answers to their questions.
If they’re reading your blog, they’re looking for an answer. Now it’s up to you to deliver.
Step 4: Organize your content
Bloggers often fall into the trap of overwhelming readers with information. There’s only so much a reader can digest from a single post.
The trick is to organize your information so readers are not intimidated by the length or amount of content. Find a planning method that works for you. This could come in the form of an outline, a list, or even something as crude as a sheet of handwritten notes and ideas.
Whatever method you choose, just make sure you have something that feels comfortable and keeps you on course throughout the writing process.
Step 5: Start writing!
It’s finally time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
Now that you have a good springboard for your blog post, you’re ready to fill in the blanks. Remember to refer to your outline or notes as needed.
Write about what you already know; and if necessary, do additional research to gather more information, examples, and data to back up your points, providing proper attribution when incorporating external sources.
Above all else, make sure you are writing with your target audience in mind. You’re a doctor – you don’t also need to be a linguaphile. You just need to be able to write how you would speak, and in a way that is easy for your audience to read and comprehend.
Step 6: Insert a call-to-action (CTA) at the end
Every blog post should include a call-to-action (CTA) that indicates what you want the reader to do next, whether it’s subscribing to your blog, making an appointment, calling your office, reading a related article, or otherwise.
If visitors read your blog post and respond to your CTA, that’s a great result for your brand!
Step 7: Email it to filmMED
Ready to publish your post? You know how to write a blog post now, but writing is only one component of publishing a quality article to your practice’s blog. Editing and optimizing your post for the Internet is another animal all together.
Send your blog post over to our team here at filmMED – we will proofread and edit your post, make sure it’s SEO-ready, format it for your blog, and then circulate it online via your blog and social media!
Now that you know how to write a blog post, what are you waiting for? Let’s start writing!
