The health industry seems to be making a push for more self care.
This is not just about meditation. It’s about individuals taking more responsibility for themselves and those they love and care for.
Trust for the healthcare model of the last several decades has waned severely with Millennials. Baby Boomers will likely trust it through their lives, but after that…self care seems to be the next wave.
That’s good for those offering information, devices and all kinds of goods and services in the self care world.
Now, let’s say you’re one of those providers. You want to grow your business heading into the coming decades. Blogging remains a great opportunity.
Here are some steps for creating a health business blog…
Step #1. Commit To A Frequency & Schedule
The most important thing in blogging is consistency. It’s actually the most important thing in a lot of professions. And probably even in our personal lives.
People like security. And one aspect of security is having a relatively good idea of what the people around you will do. Even if you’re not the best, being consistent can give you an edge.
But here is the other thing, with blogging you become top notch by being consistent with your publishing. The more you publish the more you learn how to write, research and edit. And over time you also learn what your target audience wants.
For a health blog I’d commit to one post a day for at least a year. If that seems daunting, drop back to 2-3 per week. If that seems daunting, you’re starting to show yourself a sign that blogging might not be for you.
Step #2. Start By Answering Questions
There is no reason to get too crazy with a health blog from the start. Focus on your target audience and the questions they have. Even the most basic ones. To anyone asking these questions, the answers are very important.
And in my experience, if a couple people are asking the same questions, many more are thinking the same ones.
If you have customers, talk to them and see what questions they have. Pay attention to their conversations with you, their emails with you and their comments on your Facebook page.
Also identify social media groups and even forums where your audience goes to ask questions.
These should all be the basis of your blog posts. Do your best to write the best answers you can. Some will be related to each other. But that’s okay.
Step #3. Stick To Basic Blog Formats
If you’re looking to write songs, you’re going to write mostly 3 minute songs.
If you’re writing movies, you’re mostly going to write 2-hour movies.
If you’re writing sitcoms, you’re mostly writing 30-minute sitcoms.
Over time, content niches develop their own basic formats. People get comfortable with these formats and don’t expect them to change too much.
This is the case with blogging. Most fall between 500 and 1,00 words. Maybe you could bump that to 1,500-2,000, but the point is the same.
Most are how-to posts or list posts or stories. You don’t really want to venture too far from the accepted format of the blogging world.
Aim for 90% of your blogs to be the “regular” format. Then leave 10% for experimentation.
Step #4. No Analytics For A Year
Analytics are a great thing. You can learn a lot about what your audience likes and doesn’t like.
But analytics in the first year of a blog almost always does more harm than good. What I mean by that is you want to setup the analytics from the start. But you want to ignore them for the first year.
Focus on being consistent with your schedule. Focus on getting the posts published and published on time. Focus on honing your blogging craft and becoming better and more efficient.
After a year of that you’ll fall into good production habits and you’ll also have enough data to start making decisions on the content for the next year.
Step #5. Repurpose For Social Media
To get more out of the blogging content you write, repurpose it for social media. Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram love native content. This is content that is meant to be consumed on their platforms. Not links that are meant to take people away.
Let’s say you write a post with 5 tips. Each of those tips can be used on social media separately. Don’t just share the post with the link on social media. Break it up into parts and share each tip natively on the social channel.
This is the best way to build engagement on social media, which leads to more awareness for your brand.
Conclusion
Blogging remains a great way for businesses to attract new customers. And with the self care industry about to hit a boom in the health world, now is the time to begin a blog that can provide return in the future.
