Every type of mental health practitioner knows that the treatment they give their patients extends far beyond face-to-face encounters. Apart from direct interventions like medication, some patients need to practice cognitive strategies at home and in other areas of their life, meaning that engaging with them outside of the clinic is important.
One of the best ways to stay engaged with patients after they leave the clinic is with web content. This includes everything from short social media posts to full-fledged articles like this one. However, if you aren’t experienced in this area, it can be difficult to plan, let alone produce engaging content on a consistent basis to engage with patients.
The following will look at 3 of the best tips for using web content to maintain engagement with and inform your patients.
Make a content plan
While you might feel inspired one afternoon and write a great blog that your patients will love, you can’t rely on that inspiration to arrive consistently. A great way to combat this is to dedicate some time to create a content plan where you brainstorm ideas for future social media posts, blog articles, and more.
If you get stuck, think about the questions you most often get asked, or the myths that you hear most often – these are great subject matter for an article. Answering common questions and dispelling myths make for highly informative and engaging content.
Look at related articles you find online and think about how you could take a different angle. Mental health is a dynamic topic area that’s becoming more and more relevant in the public consciousness, so there’s no shortage of subject matter to write about.
Don’t fall into the trap ‘soft plagiarism’ and repeating what’s already been said by someone else. When you take a unique angle, your content will attract more interest because it’s a perspective people haven’t seen before.
Optimise your content for search engines
Of course, well-written and informative content is a great way to attract new patients to your clinic and boost the authority of your website. Google likes it when you post authoritative and engaging information for the benefit of online users, and you’ll be rewarded with higher placement in search rankings because of this effort.
With that said, try to steer your content to answer questions that people are asking on Google. If you can provide users with authoritative answers about mental health, your website will be more relevant when people search for mental health services.
There is a myriad of specific tricks for making your content more ‘search engine friendly’, and this includes creating numbered lists (which people click on more often), as well as using keywords in your article titles and subheadings.
Even seemingly small things like the alt text in images you use can make an impact on the visibility of your content. If you want to optimise your web content so it’s as effective as possible, leveraging the expertise of a digital marketing agency like SEO Shark can be a worthwhile course of action.
Make evergreen content
‘Evergreen’ is a term that describes web content that is not time-sensitive, meaning it will remain relevant for a long time. Content that talks about specific news developments can be eye-catchy but won’t generate as much interest after the news has been resolved.
You should try to produce a mix of news-worthy and evergreen content to get the best engagement. A good example of evergreen content is a large FAQ (frequently asked questions) page or a how-to guide with information that won’t become old news over the months and years after posting.
