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Nutrition Blogging Done Well: Rebecca Bitzer & Associates – The REBEL Dietitians

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© Rebecca Bitzer & Associates

Rebecca Bitzer & Associates: REBEL Dietitians is the largest outpatient nutrition counseling practice in Maryland and has operated for over twenty-nine years.

With seven registered dietitian nutritionists (RDs) and three locations, they focus on finding personalized solutions for busy people so nutrition and cooking are simple, no matter what condition people are coming in to manage or prevent.

They achieve this through individual nutrition counseling, corporate presentations, and nutrition classes, as well as through blogging.

The REBEL Dietitians blog is a treasure trove of practical advice and recipes, and Rebecca was generous enough to answer a few questions about their blogging experience.

How many of your dietitian nutritionists contribute to the blog, and how often?

We are a team of seven registered dietitian nutritionists. Five of us contribute to the blog. Each of us has a specialty so we try to include blog posts that are helpful to each RD’s audience.

For instance:

Kaitlin Williams, RD, LD, wrote a blog post on what to cook when you don’t feel like cooking:
https://rbitzer.com/dont-feel-like-cooking/

Klara Knezevic, RD, LD, helps clients eat local foods and foods in season. Here is her blog post about autumn foods with inspirational recipes:
https://rbitzer.com/produce-in-season-in-the-fall/

Dana Magee, RD, LD, CLT, is our digestive specialist and she writes about FODMAPs like this blog post about low FODMAP breakfasts:
https://rbitzer.com/low-fodmap-friendly-breakfasts/

Alex Raymond, RD, LD ,works with clients to eat without without the unnecessary restrictions of dieting. Here is a recent blog post on how to lose weight (without dieting) after vacation:
https://rbitzer.com/6-tips-lose-weight-gained-vacation/

Rebecca Bitzer, RD, LD, CEDRD, recently blogged about the benefits of eating chili and her four favorite chili recipes:
https://rbitzer.com/homemade-chili-recipes/

You can expect one new blog post per month from each of us. We also do one compilation post per month where each of us contribute a recipe or a nutrition tip to give various perspectives.

Klara Knezevic, RD, LD wrote this compilation blog post with recipes from all of us where the entire meal is prepared using just one pan:
https://rbitzer.com/8-chicken-sheet-pan-dinners/

Is blogging a requirement at your practice? Do some of your dietitian nutritionists need prompting or extra encouragement, and how do you handle that?

We believe that the world depends on social media. More and more people look online before choosing to work with a professional so blogging is a priority for us.

In addition to attracting new clients, we want to make sure that our current and former clients have a valuable resource to help keep them focused and accountable and most of all inspired to keep meeting their nutrition and health goals.

Our blog posts are so filled with content, our dietitians often print out blog posts to discuss with clients as certain challenges become known during the session. For instance, if a client is struggling with overeating during Thanksgiving, we give tips and tools on how to eat more mindfully during the holidays.

One of our dietitians is in charge of setting deadlines and themes for each month. It takes time for all of us to cook the recipes, take photos, and add recipes to our database of recipes. Everyone is busy but we collectively share the value of writing strong blog posts, so we encourage each other.

An added bonus is that oftentimes the person cooking a new recipe brings it into the office to share so we can all enjoy it!

Do you use a set calendar of blogging topics and the types of posts you write?

While most of our blog posts are recipe based, some are self-care based because we believe that self-care is always key, especially when trying to make changes in health behaviors.

Each RDN writes about something she is passionate about, which helps her voice and authenticity come through. Also, it helps her have fresh, new material to share with her clients.

I notice you choose not to date your blog posts. Has it always been that way? What was the thinking behind that choice?

We recently hired a professional branding company to update our website (which is another story). [Note from Linda: Believe me, Rebecca, I can relate!]

When we were updating our website, we decided to do an overhaul of our 400+ blog posts. As a group, we reviewed, edited, updated and removed outdated blog posts. This is when we decided to hide the dates of the blog posts.

The reason behind hiding the dates is that we repost our seasonal and holiday blog posts on social media. Since we are always attracting new followers, it made sense to link to these “timeless” posts. Removing the dates ensures these posts do not look repurposed.

Just because we wrote a great Halloween blog post last year, it does not mean that our all of our current followers saw it last year. The tips and hacks are still useful and the photos and recipes are excellent – so let’s reuse it!

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post to learn about the REBEL Dieticians’ early blogging days, the biggest benefits they’ve seen from blogging, and more!

In the meantime, keep reading here for more inspiration and tips for a multi-author wellness blog!

Usability Tips to Keep Blog Readers Happy and Returning

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© coolfonk – Depositphotos.com

If your blog isn’t easy to use, people won’t stay very long and they probably won’t return. Usability is the key to making sure readers find what they need. In a previous post, Tema Frank from Frank Reactions introduced us to usability, and now we’ll get her concrete usability tips to use when blogging for business.

From a usability standpoint, is it better to have a blog be part of your main website or on a separate platform at a separate address? Why?

From a marketing perspective, I think it is better for a blog to be part of your main website. It is so hard to get readers to your website that you don’t want to be splitting your efforts. The more traffic you can drive to one site, and the more valuable content you have on it, the higher it will rank in search results.

It is also better for usability if you keep your blog and website in one place. Otherwise people may get confused going back and forth between the two.

What are some tests bloggers can use to improve the usability of their blog and website?

To start with, use Google Analytics and track what is most popular with your readers over time. If you see that your bounce rate is high (people coming to your site and leaving right away), you can assume that you’ve got a problem.

There are some free tools you can use to test things like page download speeds (the faster the better), colour contrast, etc. I list several of them on the Internet Marketing Tools page of the Frank Reactions website. Scroll down and click “Usability Testing.”

Another useful free tool is built right into Word. It will check the grade level readability of your writing. Oddly, even for a highly educated audience a grade level score of about Grade 8 will get you the best results. It is hidden in the more recent versions of Word, so here’s how to enable it:

  1. Click the File tab, and then click Options.
  2. Click Proofing.
  3. Under When correcting spelling and grammar in Word, make sure the Check grammar with spelling check box is selected.
  4. Select Show readability statistics.

After you enable this feature, open a file that you want to check, and check the spelling. When Word finishes checking the spelling and grammar, it displays information about the reading level of the document.

Do you have any other usability tips for business bloggers?

  • Be focused. Try to write on one consistent topic. If you wander all over the place, people won’t know what to expect, and are less likely to follow you. Think about who you are writing for, and what will be relevant and of interest to them.
  • Blog regularly. Aim to post at least once or twice a week if you want to build a following.
  • Promote your posts. Use social media and other tools to promote what you’ve written. I love the WiseStamp tool that you drew to my attention, Linda. It lets you have a link to your latest post automatically placed in your email signature.
  • Minimize jargon. You may be tempted to throw a lot of jargon in to show that you are an industry “insider” but usually even tech types find it easier to read jargon-free documents.
  • Don’t have patterned backgrounds! Fortunately, this is not nearly as common as it used to be.
  • Be human. This can be really tough in a business blog, but people will respond better if they get a sense of the real person writing rather than just a corporate face. Try to bring some personal elements into your writing.

So while you’re aiming for high-quality content that will be interesting and useful to your ideal clients, be sure to think about how easy it is to find and navigate through the information on your blog. The more usable your blog, the more likely people will stay on your site long enough to learn more about your business.

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

Are These Usability Mistakes Undermining Your Business Blog?

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frustrated blog reader
© Wavebreakmedia – Depositphotos.com

Is your blog confusing your readers and sending them away dissatisfied? Tema Frank, author of PeopleShock: The Path to Profits When Customers Rule, and Chief Instigator at Frank Reactions, walks us through the topic of usability, and how it impacts business bloggers.

Tema Frank is a marketing and customer service expert who built her first website in 1995 and has been helping businesses with online marketing since the late 1990s. Through her speaking, consulting and bi-weekly podcast, Frank Reactions on Customer Experience, she helps companies profit from the Internet.

I met Tema online when we both tweeted that we’d be attending a Toronto marketing conference. By the time we met in person, I’d visited her website, listened to her original podcast series (the Frank Online Marketing Show), and discovered just how knowledgeable she is about online marketing! I’m thrilled she agreed to an interview, and I hope there will be more to come.

Tema, one of the services your company offers is usability testing. I’d like to delve into the topic of usability and how it relates to business blogging.

First of all, what is usability?

Put simply, usability is about making a website (or software program, or anything else used by people) easy to use.

What are some of the consequences of usability problems on your website?

There are lots of them – here are the top five:

  1. Wasted advertising and promotional efforts because people who come to your site can’t do what they want or find what they are looking for.
  2. Bad publicity (thus turning off future clients as well as those who hit the problem). People who have a bad experience on a website are likely to tell many others about it. Now with social media, that bad experience can quickly become known by thousands of people and hurt your business for years to come.
  3. Lost sales. Odds are there is someone else offering something similar that has a more usable website. Guess where your prospects will go?
  4. Higher customer service costs. If frustrated visitors can’t find what they need or do what they want easily, they’ll either give up or call you. Generally a call from a customer costs many times more than letting them do things themselves online.
  5. Increased costs correcting errors. If it isn’t clear how to do something, users will make mistakes. Those mistakes will cost you money as you try to untangle the mess they’ve made.

What are some usability issues that are specific to blogs?

One that drives me crazy is when there are no dates on the posts. Information, especially when it comes to technology, gets outdated quickly. If I don’t know when the post was made, how can I tell if it is still relevant?

(I often get around that by filtering my search results to be within the past month or past year. I wish Google would let me set a default of one year for all my searches.)

Another is lack of scannability. People have short attention spans and tend to read only about 10% of what’s actually written on a page. (Sad for us writers, but true.)

When my daughter was in her first year of university, I taught her that if she was short on time she should read the first and last paragraph of each chapter, then scan the headings and bullet points. That’s what people tend to do on blog posts too. (Though they probably don’t bother with the last paragraph).

Boring headlines will work against you. Headlines are vitally important. If your headline doesn’t grab your readers, they won’t bother with the rest. Jon Morrow has a great free report on Headline Hacks that is worth reading. (You can also check out my interview with Jon Morrow at http://frankonlinemarketing.com/fom52-jonmorrow/.)

Too much text. Along with keeping your text scannable with sub-headings and lists, photos help break up the text on a page and add more visual interest. People are naturally drawn to images, especially photos with faces in them. Use a good headline under the photo, as that is very likely to be read.

Are any of these usability mistakes showing up on your blog? Stay tuned for the next part of my interview with Tema Frank, where she’ll reveal her best usability tips for business bloggers.

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

How Long Should a Blog Post Be?

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Typewriter with paper
© sergeka – Fotolio.com

That is by far the most common question I hear about business blogging, and my standard response is 500 words for a how-to article and 350-500 words for other types of posts.

What about long-form content, i.e., blog posts or e-books spanning 1,000-3,000+ words? These can yield impressive search results and social media sharing, but can be timely and/or costly to produce. You can always experiment with these later once you’re more comfortable blogging regularly, or you have the resources to outsource.

But for now, I want you to succeed with your blog and your business. So let’s set a manageable blogging goal you’ll be able to meet once or twice a month.

Before you get too caught up in how long your blog posts should be, here’s a far more important question:

What is the point of your blog post?

When I’m editing clients’ blog posts, I sometimes notice that they finish their articles talking about something different than when they started. So much so that the titles don’t always reflect what seems to be their most important point.

That’s why it’s a mistake to publish the first draft of your blog post. Instead, review it with a critical eye to make sure you can answer the question, “What’s the point?”

Once you’ve identified your point, make it clear to the reader by spelling it out at the beginning of your article (you might also want to repeat it at the end).

Make your point just as clear to prospective readers, by crafting a blog post title that promises what you actually deliver. From there, you can write a series of social media posts as variations on the same theme.

If you find yourself trying to make several different points, follow these tips for how to pare down a long blog post, how to spot a blog post series, and how to focus your mind, your topic and your writing.

Most importantly, make sure the point of your blog post is something that will be meaningful to your target audience. Does it answer a question they’ve asked? Does it demonstrate your expertise and concern for the problems they’re struggling with? Does it point them towards a helpful solution?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can confidently use as many words as it takes to get your message across. Your readers will respond to your genuine passion for their wellness.

This is an updated version of This is More Important Than Blog Post Length.

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

5 Ways to Lead Local Clients From Your Blog to Your Clinic

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Local client at wellness clinic
© romankosolapov – Fotolia.com

If you’re new to the concept of content marketing, it may be difficult to imagine how publishing an article on your website could help bring clients into your local clinic.

After all, if you give people home-care tips to solve their problems, won’t you be blogging yourself out of new clients?

Actually, the opposite is true! Effective wellness blogging will lead local clients from your website right to your clinic. Here are five ways:

1. They see and think of you often

It makes sense that the more content you post on your blog and on social media, the more people will see and think of you. What’s most important is what you’re posting.

Sales promotions and ads can feel intrusive and give a negative impression of your business, even subconsciously. If, on the other hand, you consistently send helpful, interesting, and entertaining content that people appreciate and enjoy, that positive association will permeate every interaction.

From blog to business: As you promote each helpful new blog post in email and on social media, you create positive feelings and establish trust.

2. They start to associate your business with a specific topic or area, and see you as an expert

You don’t only want people to see and think of you often – you want them to think of you in relation to a particular topic or set of topics.

On your blog and on social media, I recommend sharing a combination of high-quality original content that your company produces, and equally high-quality content from other sources.

The key is that all of this content is centered around key topics that reinforce the expertise you deliver with your products and services.

From blog to business: When your network sees you consistently post high-quality content about a particular set of topics, you will be the first one they think of when they or someone they know needs your service or program.

3. They start to rely on you as a resource

When the tips and suggestions you provide are relevant and get positive results, you become a trusted resource in the minds of your readers.

By giving advice about the issues they most care about – related to your topic areas – you connect with your readers on different levels and become a bigger part of their lives.

From blog to business: People may wonder, “If they give away this much great information for free, I wonder how much more they could help me if I hired them!”

4. They feel like a part of your business

Aside from sharing information that helps prospective clients solve a problem, you can also use blogging to invite them behind the scenes of your business to meet your other clients, your suppliers and vendors, your partners, and your staff. These backstage tours create a sense of comfort and familiarity before they even walk in the door.

You can also turn the tables and offer people a chance for you to get to know them. Invite them to submit questions, recipes, tips, photos, stories – the sky’s the limit!

From blog to business: Familiarity breeds trust, and so the more often you connect with people in meaningful ways, the more comfortable they will feel approaching you to do business.

Bonus: As people join in public discussions with you and about you, they can soon turn into customer evangelists who help others discover and trust you.

5. They know exactly when to come in

Building onto that sense of familiarity and community, your blog readers and social media followers can enjoy a sense of privilege and exclusivity. While you’ll mainly use your blog for information and not promotion, occasionally you can directly promote your business and something that’s going on there.

Your loyal readers and social media followers will be the first to hear, and will want to boost their own online reputation by passing on these great opportunities to their network.

From blog to business: Because of the trust, familiarity and goodwill you’ve built by sharing helpful, relevant information, people will be much more open to your sales offers, and more likely to say yes if they’re the right fit.