The population of aging people in the United States is on the rise. This aging generation is the largest yet, and people are living longer than ever before. There are over 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. today with over 1.3 million residents. It’s becoming more competitive than ever before for nursing homes to market themselves to patients and families. What working in nursing home website marketing a few years ago no longer is the name of the game today. Transforming your business into a success in 2019 will take a lot of focus on new activities. For this article, we’ll be highlighting the importance of blogging. Blogging is the best way to build an audience for your nursing home website. Think of it as a free way to promote your marketing efforts when you run a nursing home, establish yourself as an expert, and find an audience of people looking for long-term care.
Why Create a Blog for Your Nursing Home?
A blog post is any online article on your website that’s centered around a specific topic known as a “niche.” As a nursing home, you might limit your blog to topics related to choosing a nursing home. You might also include outside topics like how to care for an aging parent, healthy tips for aging people, and more.
Why is blogging so powerful? Let’s look at some key blogging numbers:
- Content marketing (blogging) costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates 3x as many leads. Content marketing (blogging) costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates 3x as many leads Click To Tweet
- There are over 2 million blog posts published daily. There are over 2 million blog posts published daily Click To Tweet
- 30% of marketers feel they can measure content marketing’s impact on their sales funnel. 30% of marketers feel they can measure content marketing’s impact on their sales funnel Click To Tweet
Ultimately, content marketing matters. Blogging matters, and it will make a difference when you’re marketing your nursing home. You don’t need any fancy content marketing team or extensive writing skills to get started. Just use these strategies below.
1. Write 1000+ Words
First, make sure you’re writing substantial blog posts. This means you can’t simply churn out 300+ words and call it a day. Since you want your content to be informative and actually noticed by search engines, you’ll need to pay close attention to your word count. Google pays attention to longer blog posts. These are, in general, much better quality and have more value for readers. If you can, aim to write over 1000+ words in each blog post.
2. Use Keywords
Speaking of search engines, learning a bit about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will go a long way. A digital marketing expert can help with this, or you can do some keyword research on your own with a free tool like Ubersuggest or Keywords Everywhere. Keywords are any string of words or terms that you use consistently throughout a blog post and its assets (URL slug, meta description, image names, etc). This is a way to let Google know just what your blog post is about so it’s able to show it to the right audience.
Related: A Quick and Easy Keyword Research Workflow for Busy Marketers
3. Tie in Calls to Action
What action do you want your readers to take after they read a blog post? Do you want them to contact your nursing home? Do you want them to sign up for your email list? Consider how your blog posts will tie into your overall content marketing strategy. Creating a call to action for every single blog post will help you increase your conversion rate.
4. Promote on Social Media
As a nursing home, you should already have an active presence on social media. If you’ve been struggling to find fresh content to promote, having an active blog will help with this. Your social media promotion strategy should be similar to your blogging strategy. While the links you get to your website on social media won’t count for SEO purposes, that doesn’t mean they aren’t still worthwhile. They’ll help generate awareness, build trust, and increase your social media reach.
With the competition heating up across the online landscape, you need a new way to make your nursing home stand out. A blog is a great way to do just that while building a connection with your audience. If you don’t have a blog, you’re missing out on a free opportunity to create custom content your users want to read. It’s time to jump on the new normal in online marketing with these strategies above.
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Jennifer Hahn Masterson is a seasoned freelance visual designer and digital nomad, aiming to shape and enhance the user experience through considering the effects of illustrations, typography, photography, space, colours and layouts on the usability of each product and its aesthetic appeal. When she is not busy pondering about the design principles of unity, space, hierarchy, balance, contrast, scale and similarity, she likes to immerse herself in a good book and satisfy her perpetual wanderlust.
