Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Keeping Readers Healthy – Tips from America’s Top Hospital Blog

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© WavebreakmediaMicro - Fotolia.com
© WavebreakmediaMicro – Fotolia.com
Amanda Todorovich
Amanda Todorovich

Cleveland Clinic is one of the top four hospitals in the United States (U.S. News & World Report, 2015), and has the #1 most-visited hospital blog in the United States.

Amanda Todorovich is their content marketing director, and I’ve had the pleasure to connect with her several times on the weekly #CMWorld Twitter chats, as well as in person at Content Marketing World conference in September 2015.

I was thrilled when she agreed to share her insights with us here.

Why create original health and wellness content?

In your 2015 presentation at Content Marketing World, you defined the Cleveland Clinic content strategy as “to engage users in daily conversation using health, wellness and clinical content that is unique to Cleveland Clinic.”

There is so much health information online today. Why do you think it is important to add to that stream with your own unique content?

There is a lot of health information online. There is also a lot of MISinformation online. It’s valuable to utilize the vast breadth and depth of expertise of Cleveland Clinic physicians and other experts to help provide actionable, accurate information that helps people make decisions every day.

Cleveland Clinic offers a unique model of medicine, and we want to help people take care of themselves and their families. Our content strategy supports that mission. We want to be useful, helpful and relevant to people all over the world – whether they will ever be a Cleveland Clinic patient or not.

Our content is conversational, approachable and helpful. It is NOT about what’s going on at Cleveland Clinic that day. It’s about the reader and helping them stay healthy, live with the conditions they do have, and giving content to them on the right channels at the right moment – just when they need it most.

Choosing which health topics to write about

You describe the purpose of your blog’s content as helping your visitors stay healthy, rather than just get them into your clinic. “We don’t get paychecks from [healing] colds,” you noted in your presentation, but since that’s the kind of content that really matters to your users, that’s the kind you produce.

How do you go about discovering which health questions are most important to your audience?

So many ways… we:

  • Ask our caregivers what questions patients are asking them
  • Mine our data to see what topics are really resonating
  • Monitor social trends
  • Monitor other health media sites
  • Ask our audiences directly for feedback
  • Utilize search information (what topics people are looking for most on our own site and also on Google, etc.)

Ideas for posts on Health Essentials come from all over our enterprise, and we collaborate with many different teams to understand what matters to their areas. We couldn’t produce this content without the help of our entire marketing division, and most importantly, without the collaboration of our physicians and medical experts.

Every piece of content we produce is reviewed and approved by a medical expert, and we publish 3-5 stories a day on Health Essentials. We have no shortage of ideas, and we have an abundance of enterprise-wide participation and support.

Mining the data for email newsletter success

You don’t just wait for people to discover or return to your blog; you invite blog readers to keep in touch with your Health Essentials E-News, available from the main blog page. You shared that your open rate is an enviable 40% and your click-through rate is 65%!

How do you account for the newsletter’s success, and what are your tips for other health clinics and wellness practitioners?

DATA. DATA. DATA. Every issue is an opportunity for optimization and improvement. We constantly test subject lines, different images, different headlines for each story. We have evolved our design based on data. We have chosen the content of the newsletter based on data.

Make your emails an enjoyable experience for your readers. Give them content that’s useful and actionable. Be strategic with the days and times you send. Test something. Test it again. Experiment every time. There is ALWAYS room for improvement.

Ignore all the “general rules” of email and consider what makes sense to your audience. Busy moms do NOT have time to read your email at 7:30am on a Tuesday. They are getting their kids off to school. Perhaps a late night send might do better. Test it. Try it. Experiment and find what works for your specific audience.

And put resources behind growing your list. Promote the newsletter. Consider win-back campaigns if your engagement has dropped off. Invite people to subscribe; never force/auto-add people to lists.

Your newsletter is a gift

Think about every email as a gift or package being delivered in their inbox. What does the wrapping look like? Will they want to open it? If they do, will they be excited and grateful or want to return it?

I hope you’ve been as inspired as I have by this glimpse into the leading hospital blog in the United States. How will it shape your efforts to keep your own blog readers healthy?

For more ideas and motivation, visit Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials blog or subscribe to one of their email newsletters!

How to Write a Curated Post For Your Nutrition Blog

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© Milles Studio – Fotolia.com

Blogging is a very effective marketing tool for wellness services such as nutritional consulting. Prospective clients need to see that you have the knowledge to help them, plus a style and approach they can work with and trust.

Yet it’s not very likely someone will hire you the minute they discover your blog, which is why you need to keep publishing new content on a regular basis. Does that mean you have to slave over a comprehensive full-length article every week? Absolutely not!

This is the third article in a series about four different types of posts you can cycle between on your blog, some of which will be much faster and easier for you to finish.

The first type we covered was the how-to post, where you do go into more depth with concrete information that allows your readers to take action. Next, we talked about how writing a more personal post will help distinguish you from the sea of nutritionists out there.

Today, we’ll look at how to harness the efforts of those other nutritionists or related experts with something called a curated post. A curated blog post is one that is centred around someone else’s content, such as a blog post, video, infographic or slideshow.

How to choose the best content to share

Just like when you’re planning your own topics, be on the lookout for content that fits the focus of your blog and the interests of your readers.

Be very selective here. Anything you share implies your endorsement, not just of this item, but its creator. Take the time to carefully review a few of the author’s other posts, their About page, and their social media profiles.

To find quality content more quickly, build a list of respected colleagues who often publish valuable blog posts, videos, or links to other gems from around the web. Schedule regular times to check their blogs and social media pages to find the newest content they’ve created or shared.

How to share content the right way

To respect copyright laws and the original creator’s hard work, never copy and paste someone else’s text into your own blog (or their images, for that matter). You can use a sentence or two as a quote, but then link to the original.

Always use the “permalink” (permanent link) assigned to that specific page. You can usually find the permalink by clicking on the title on a blog post. The permalink will be something like this: http://ionc.org/2015/12/how-to-start-a-blog-for-your-nutrition-business/ versus a link like this: http://ionc.org/blog/.

An exception is when you embed content into your blog so your visitor can view it right from your site. You do this by pasting in a special code provided by the original creator. Click these links to learn more about how to embed a SlideShare presentation, how to embed a YouTube video, or how to embed an infographic into a WordPress blog.

How to write a curated blog post

You always want to add your own text before and after the link or the embedded content. Ideally, you’ll have at least one paragraph at the beginning of your post, and another at the end. At about 200-250 words, this is way less writing than you might do for a how-to post or a personal post!

As an introduction, write a little about why you chose to share this resource and how you think it will be valuable to your reader. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your own knowledge and expertise, and express your unique personality.

You can offer a short bio of the author, explain how you’re connected with this person or how you discovered them, or provide a brief description of their company and what they do.

At the end of the post, ask what your reader thought of the content, or how they will implement the information. Then ask them to stay connected with you, whether that’s to read a related post, visit you on social media, subscribe to your email updates, or contact you with comments or questions.

A curated post is an excellent way to connect with other experts, and most of all to keep sharing valuable information with your readers and prospective clients.

P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy the Blogging Tips newsletter, delivered weekly to your inbox! Sign up here.

Why Multiple Tweets About Your Blog Post Are Not Bothering Anyone

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© zea_lenanet – Fotolia.com

In my post about how to keep people coming back to your blog, I encourage you to promote your blog posts several times on social media sites like Twitter.

A concern I hear from some business owners is, “Won’t I be bothering people if I post too often?” usually followed up with, “So-and-so posts all the time and I almost/just unfollowed them because I am so tired of seeing their messages!”

Here are four reasons you don’t have to worry about annoying people with multiple messages about your latest blog posts, or links to your goldmine of archived posts:

  1. Things move quickly on social media. Most people only see a small percentage of what their connections post, because other updates come along to push your post down and eventually off the page. If it seems like you’re constantly seeing posts from the same person, it’s likely you’re not connected to very many people yet. (Time to ramp up your networking?)
  2. People will scan for what’s interesting and important to them. With so much information flooding us day in and day out, we’ve become remarkably skilled at ignoring the majority of what we see. We may dislike the flood, but we don’t usually rage against each individual drop of water.
  3. People forget things. Along the same lines, since people are often focused on their own needs and interests, they can quickly get distracted with something else, even if they were initially drawn in by what you posted. In that case sending a second or third notice may be the only way they end up reading your blog post.
  4. People want to help. Your connections may not be members of your target market, and may never click on a single link you share. However, by seeing your links and clever teaser messages, they begin to associate you with the key topics you’re blogging about. They’ll remember this when someone asks for a referral for what you do.

I’ve read over and over again that we must put just as much – or more – effort into promoting our blog posts as we do creating them. I use a blog post promotion checklist to keep track of this important part of the blogging process, and it always includes multiple messages across several social media platforms.

Keep in mind that the most important part of posting to social media is monitoring and replying to responses from your network. Ignoring the social part of social media is not just annoying, it’s downright rude. I’m sure that’s not the impression you want your business to make!

P.S. If you liked this post, you might enjoy the Blogging Tips newsletter, delivered weekly to your inbox! Sign up here.

How to Write a Personal Post For Your Nutrition Blog

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In a series of posts over at the International Organization of Nutritional Consultants (IONC), I’ve been writing about how nutritionists can use blogging to attract new clients.

First I showed you how to get started, and now we’re looking at four different types of blog posts you can use to keep writing week after week.

A weekly post? That sounds way too hard! I understand. That’s why I suggest you aim to write just ONE feature-length post every month, where you teach your reader how to do something.

In the other three weeks, experiment with other types of posts that may be quicker and easier for you to put together. Let’s start with the personal post.

There are a lot of other holistic nutritionists out there, but that doesn’t make you competitors. You each have ideal clients who will be drawn to your particular set of life experiences and personality.

Blogging is the perfect place to let your unique style shine through. Personal posts are the ones only you can write, as opposed to the generic topics you might find on dozens of nutrition blogs.

There is nothing wrong with sharing a personal story on a business blog. It’s important to show potential clients your human side, since we all do business with those we know, like and trust. This is especially true for intimate services like nutrition counselling.

Use your own stories of failure and success to form a deeper connection with your audience, and reinforce the principles you teach in your business. I once wrote about a mishap in the kitchen to remind readers to keep a pad of paper handy for new blogging ideas.

A personal post may incorporate elements of a how-to post, like this one where I featured my own beloved greyhound Patch in a post about blogging consistently. Or it could be purely personal, like how Joy McCarthy and her team share their personal resolutions in this New Year’s post.

If you missed the first post in this series, visit IONC to read How to Write a How-To Post For Your Nutrition Blog. Stay tuned to learn about two other types of posts, including one that lets you lean on other people to feed your own blog.

When you put them all together, you’ll have everything you need for an interesting variety of blog posts all month long.

P.S. If you want to receive my newest blogging tips by email, including the next two posts in this series about nutrition blogging, sign up here for the Blogging Tips newsletter, delivered weekly to your inbox!

Blogging Q & A With Nutritionist Julie Daniluk

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Julie Daniluk
Julie Daniluk

Julie Daniluk, RHN, is the author of Meals That Heal Inflammation and Slimming Meals That Heal. She has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows including The Dr. Oz Show, and is a resident expert for The Marilyn Denis show (a Canadian television icon!) and Reader’s Digest.

Meals That Heal Inflammation was helpful in my own recovery from many years of digestive difficulties. Since discovering the book I’ve visited Julie’s blog often, and I love watching her on Marilyn Denis!

Julie was one of the five nutrition bloggers I profiled as examples of business blogging done well, and she agreed to answer these follow-up questions about her blogging experience:

  1. Why did you first start blogging, and how has your blogging changed since then?

I started blogging about five years ago. At that point it was very informal. I simply wrote about topics that were of interest to me, without a lot of format.

About one year into blogging I realized that people were looking for substantiated information about food and nutrition, so I started to write my blogs to reflect the content of my book Meals That Heal Inflammation. I also started to write about the frequently asked questions I received via email and social media.

  1. What have been the biggest benefits of continuing to blog so consistently?

People love to see an active and engaging blog. It is a very powerful way to spread the word about health and the role food plays in our lives.

  1. Do you use a set calendar of blogging topics and when you will post?

I follow the general seasonal themes but I like to keep the material spontaneous so it is more universal. I have people from all over the world following my blog so I have learned to speak in more universal terms.

For example, though I live in Canada, not everyone that is reading is experiencing -25 Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit) in February and not everyone is celebrating the standard North American holidays.

  1. Does anyone help you with the blogging process (anything from writing, editing, research, publishing, promotion), and how?

My sister and administrator Lynn takes the raw material I provide and formats/publishes the blogs online. It is quite a labour-intensive process.

Note from Linda: Some would even call it tedious, which is why I put together this SlideShare presentation about the many parts of the blogging process you can outsource to someone else.

  1. What advice do you have for a new nutrition blogger?

Write what you are passionate about and if you are speaking about science, be sure to back up your work with the studies you are citing!

Note from Linda: I love how Julie does this on her blog. In fact, it was one of the five best nutrition blogging practices I highlighted in an earlier post.

If you’d like to start or improve your own nutrition blog, check out the 7-step process I outline here: How to Start a Blog For Your Nutrition Business.

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