You own a veterinary practice, and you've decided to start a blog to stay in touch with your clients.

Great idea -- because as a practicing veterinarian, you're in the business of animal health. So why not take steps to help your practice thrive and keep clients returning?

A blog can be an effective way to do this.
​
But before you put your fingers on the keyboard and publish your first post, here are some tips for writing an outstanding one.

As you choose topics, remember that you're writing for your readers, also known as your target audience.

And most people read blogs to learn something. Especially pet parents keen on animal health because they want the best for their pets!
​
What you write about should be something that will help them, whether it's the benefits of a particular flea and tick product, the best way to trim nails, or answers to questions you field every day like, "Should I feed my pet a raw diet?" or "Why does my dog eat cigarette butts?"

Blog readers don't want to be pitched, so avoid selling your product or service outright; keep that lowkey.

Instead, be personable. Write conversationally with a story-telling approach. Tap into insights from your day-to-day experiences to tell stories that will make your posts interesting.

For instance, maybe a recent euthanasia case raised a point you'd like to share. Readers will appreciate your perspective and advice on this sensitive subject; this builds trust. And trust builds relationships.

Another thing to pay attention to is the format of your post.

Avoid long sentences and big chunks of text; they can be tiring to read. Use headings with paragraphs to break things up, making it easier for readers to skim what's written or jump from one section to another.
​
Depending on your topic, include statistics when possible. Verify the stats by linking to external sources, which is helpful for a few reasons.

Linking is akin to citing a reference. It supports your writing and provides readers with additional valuable information.

Linking to quality sources inspires search engines to view your post favorably. External links to other relevant sites add credibility to your post. And that improves search engine results.
​
Here's an article explaining external linking best practices to learn more.

SEO plays a role in blogging because its practice, when done well, drives readers to your blog.
But not just any readers, the right readers.

In a nutshell, you optimize your blog and web pages to stack the deck, so to speak, so the people most interested in what you have to offer will find you.

Although many steps are involved with SEO, one of the more important ones is choosing keywords.
Essentially, the keywords you select for your blog post should be the ones your target audience is googling. And to find those keywords requires keyword research.

Keyword research takes time and effort. I could devote a lengthy blog post to this topic, but instead, here's a link to a comprehensive keyword research article.

Once you have your keywords, judiciously place them in your blog post, such as in the title and headings, and sprinkle them throughout the content.

You don't want to just slap the keywords in there or overuse them. Search engines will be suspicious of this behavior and may view your content as spam.
​
I like to write the post first and then go back and insert keywords. This approach lets you focus on the point of your article without worrying about where to put the keywords.

So let's imagine you've just written a gem of a blog post with content sure to please your audience.

How do you get them to read it? With a title that catches their eye and sparks their interest!

The title has to inspire, entice, or intrigue so the reader opens and reads your post. Coming up with a blockbuster title is no small feat, so don't treat your title selection as an afterthought.

Spend some time thinking one up. And don't necessarily go with the first one that comes to mind.

To create an irresistible SEO-friendly title, I use CoSchedule Headline-Analyzer.

This tool ranks your title's potency based on phrasing, word count, emotional impact, and more. The higher the score, the stronger the title.

Successful titles frequently ask a question, use numbers, and, most importantly, clearly describe the blog post's contents.

Nothing is more frustrating than reading a blog post that doesn't deliver. You don't want to burn your audience.

So, are you ready to get started blogging?

It's an effective way to stay in front of your veterinary clients and build relationships, but it requires time, effort, and patience to produce consistent blog posts that your audience will find and read.

Otherwise, why bother?

If you'd like help with blogging for your veterinary practice or business, please email or call me at 508-277-4929. I'm happy to assist!

Recently a client asked me if I could guarantee my work.

Could I ensure what I wrote would garner a particular result?

If I could guarantee that my copy would produce a specific outcome for my animal health or veterinary clients, that would be a game-changer!

But I know that a guarantee of that sort could never be, given the nature of content marketing. There are just too many variables that a copywriter can't control that influence the effectiveness of the copy.

These include product, competition, market, price, marketing strategies, traffic, quality of traffic, demand, and buyer preferences.

When these factors converge, it's hard to predict what might happen.

And this applies whether you're trying to improve a response rate percentage or grow a brand's recognition.

Would your financial advisor tell you a particular investment is a definite winner? (If he does, you might want to look for a new one.)

Writing copy is like investing money.

Be diligent with research, but understand that the market is unpredictable, so there are no sure bets.
So back to my client, how did I respond to the question about guaranteeing my work?

With tact, of course.

I said that I couldn't answer with certainty whether my copy would produce their desired result.
But I was confident if they did no content marketing, the chances of achieving it were next to none.
​
If you want to grow your veterinary practice or animal health business by sharing helpful content or want to learn more about content marketing, contact me or call 508-277-4929.

"When I saw his white blood cell count, I expected he'd have a fever or diarrhea." 

These were the words of my veterinarian when she told me Pan's white blood cell count was low.

Looking at him, I didn't see a sick horse. His temperature, which I'd been monitoring for several days, was normal. Whenever my hand moved near my jacket pocket, his ears pricked in hopeful expectation that I'd slip him a treat.

Nope, nothing outwardly wrong with this animal's health.

Animal health is rampant with disease and illness, which gives an animal health copywriter (that would be me) lots of fodder to write about. All critters are afflicted, from pigs and chickens to beloved house pets. And just like in human medicine, veterinary medicine turns to diagnostics for answers.

But what happens when the patient's behavior contradicts what the science reports? What do veterinarians do when the test results are abnormal but the animal seems fine?
​
In Pan's case, he had a WBC (white blood cell) count that was low, as the results from his lab report below show.

​But contrary to what my vet said about fever or diarrhea, he displayed no symptoms indicative of the low count. He didn't act sick at all.

We reran the test one week later, and the count, although still low, improved to 3.3.

These results presented a dilemma. A horse with such a low count might have something brewing. Pan might be risky to admit to Tufts Large Animal Hospital for his upcoming dental surgery.

After weighing all the facts – Pan's WBC test said something was wrong, but his demeanor spoke otherwise – my veterinarian had to consider the conflicting evidence and make a call.

She decided that his lack of fever and otherwise healthy behavior took precedence over his white blood cell count. Luckily, Tufts agreed with her, and Pan's surgery went as scheduled.

Unfortunately, this experience is not uncommon.

Symptoms and test results in veterinary medicine don't always go hand in hand to align neatly with a diagnosis. Much to the dismay of veterinarians and owners.

Scientific data always has a role in the veterinary diagnostic process, but it's never the be-all or end-all. Good vets listen to and observe their patients, knowing that sometimes the animal gives a better indication of what's going on in its body than the results of a lab test.
​
If you're a veterinarian, you're probably busy caring for patients, so thanks for taking the time to read this! If you want to grow your veterinary practice or animal health business by sharing helpful content or want to learn more about content marketing, contact me or call 508-277-4929.

Is writing a blog blah to you?

Is it something you consistently assign to the bottom of your to-do list?

Hey, it’s OK not to like writing. But if you commit to blogging, you need to do it often because a blog’s value, such as growing and solidifying your client base or establishing yourself as an expert, comes from regular posts.

But maybe you’ve too many other things to do – veterinarians out there, does that sound familiar?

Another gripe with blogging is coming up with a steady stream of topics. That’s a sticking point for many and why so many blogs collect dust on websites.

To come up with ideas, use your best resource – your clients. What are their concerns? What questions do they ask at appointments? 

On the flip side, what subjects do you feel are essential to your clients? What would you like to educate them about?

Maybe you’d like to promote the benefits of pet insurance or the dangers of pet obesity. If your topics are broad, like these two examples, break them down into smaller components, which gives your blog more content.

For example, you could divide pet obesity into the following:  the importance of daily exercise for your obese pet, diets to help your pet lose weight, and diseases prone to overweight pets. You could probably split the topic of diseases into multiple posts.

Don’t be afraid to dive into a topic; more details make the content more educational and valuable to the reader. Debates abound concerning the length of blog posts; at one time, experts believed short was best, but then that changed to preferring a longer format.

Ultimately, what matters most is the information you’re sharing -- is it useful and relevant to your readers? Does it help them be better pet parents? If so, they’ll read your blog, whether 300 or 3000 words.

Blogging can help build and grow your veterinary practice, especially if you’re consistent.

If you’d like to learn more about blogging and how to create a first-rate blog, email me here or call me at 508-277-4929.

​