For any growing business, the need for consistent content creation is perhaps more apparent than ever. From more opportunities to make connections with new patients and opportunities to grow your search engine presence, a productive blog represents a healthy and prosperous practice.
However, fresh ideas are often hard to come by. This is especially true when you’re in a technical industry such as physiotherapy, which likely isn’t going to be dominating the news feeds of your visitors. Since PT practices represent service-based businesses, where users typically only seek us out on an as-needed basis, how can we possibly hope to come up with engaging topics rather than simply spinning our wheels?
When it comes to coming up with new blog posts, a bit of creativity and personality can go a long way. If your blog is hurting for compelling content, consider telling some new stories and giving your blog a personal touch through the following five content strategies.
Patients want to see personality from their medical practices; therefore, what better way to show off your personal side than by telling the story of how you got started in physical therapy? For example, consider writing a post that details the history of yourself and your practice including:
Inspirational tales which led to the creation of your practice (such as run-ins with special colleagues or patients that motivated you)
The moment or “spark” that drove you into the medical field in the first place
The struggles and hardships of growing your practice and how you got where you were today; on the flip side, you could talk about success stories within your practice
While such a story doesn’t represent your run-of-the-mill blog post, it does present an opportunity to get candid with your audience.
When potential patients seek out your physical therapy site, chances are they’re intent on seeing results. Think about a patient whose story is worth telling. Such a story has the potential to create an emotional connection with your readers. Although you’ll need a particularly special patient to make it happen, alongside their explicit permission to tell their story, consider:
Patients who looked like they would never recover from an injury “on paper” but eventually rehabbed successfully
A patient who perhaps overcame a sports-related injury and went on to play again despite their setback
Including pictures of the patients’ recovery, visually documenting their progress and eventual recover
To make the writing process easier, you could also interview the patient over email or simply record a talk with the patient and transcribe it. Again, such a post definitely represents something out of the ordinary that will resonate with your readership.
Controversy is always a way to create buzz; however, you shouldn’t go around needlessly picking fights. Instead, consider writing your next blog post about how your practice differs from competitors in your area. While you may not want to explicity call out another business by name, you can build yourself up as an exclusive PT clinic by blogging about:
The services that you offer that perhaps aren’t offered by anyone else in your area
Niches you want to leverage for your practice that you currently have no competition for (such as physical therapy for obesity management or hobby sports)
How the experience and personality of your team is one-of-a-kind
Such topics also allow you prime opportunities to rank for keywords, especially if you’re looking to dominate a niche locally.
The practice of newsjacking is incredibly common and represents a way to come up with ideas based on current events and trends. For example, if everyone’s talking about the Olympics, discuss how a star athlete might rehab from a horrific injury. Such topics are not only relevant to your readership but also showcase your creativity.
When done correctly, newsjacking represents an opportunity to get your audience in front of eyes you wouldn’t normally reach. Although the traffic acquired from such stories may not eventually become patients, the increased attention can certainly have a positive effect on your SEO.
Similar to newsjacking, another way to come up with blog ideas without reinventing the wheel is to simply provide your commentary on an existing blog you’ve read. For example, if another PT practice discusses a new development in the industry such as a breaking new treatment or medicine, you can craft a post that provides your own personal thoughts and opinions on the topic.
If you follow competing bloggers on social media or opt-in to their email lists, you can such topics sent to you regularly rather than having to constantly seek them out.
Creating consistent content for search engines can be time-consuming but is absolutely necessary for a successful SEO strategy for your PT practice. In order to save time and energy, consider letting PatientSites do the hard work for you.
Get started with a Free Evergreen Marketing Blueprint to learn how you can create long-term assets that will attract new patients for years to come.