Generate New Eye Care and Healthcare Blog Ideas and Boost ROI

Having an active and effective blog is imperative for those in the healthcare and eye care field. A blog is an affordable content marketing and SEO tool for any type of business, but it can be especially important for those in eye care and healthcare. Many understand the importance of having a blog, but we don’t have the time to drive the editorial. How can we find enough blog post ideas to fill up an editorial calendar and keep the blog active all year long?

Why Blog Posts Matter

One of the biggest mistakes that those in the healthcare and eye care fields make with their blogs is that it has to be very serious, medical, and informative.  That can be good, too, but we want to break it up between personal and professional.  If you have a blog that focuses only on providing information about your business and trying to sell your services to people, then readers will quickly grow bored and begin to tune your posts out. It’s important to make a connection with your patients, which is something that your blog posts will do, if done correctly.

 Your blog posts should focus on making a connection with people who are already your patient, as well as help to bring in new ones. A good blog post will help to build trust, keep your practice on their radar, and provide useful information. If it provides information that people can use, they will also feel compelled to share it, such as on social media, which may bring in new patients. When you focus on posting good blog content and commit to the idea of having a blog (you should), you will get that ROI: new patients, building trust and reputation with your patient base, boosting search engine rankings and social media presence.

Generating Blog Post Topics

One of the top reasons why people give up on their blog is because they run out of ideas on what to write about. Continuously generating blog posts all year long can be a challenge for your team. The truth is that blog post ideas are all around. Within your practice, you likely get many questions from your patients on a regular basis. Each of those things can become the focus of a blog post.

Here are some ideas for blog posts for those who have eye care or healthcare practices:

1. What is making news headlines?

If there are health-related issues in the news, it’s always a good idea to offer your tips and perspective to help your patients understand more of what is going on. For example, COVID-19 is dominating the headlines right now, so some possible blog post ideas would be:

• How to Protect Your Eyes During a Pandemic
• Can Wearing Glasses Help Reduce Risks of Getting COVID-19?
• 5 Tips for Keeping Your Family Safer During a Pandemic
• Heading back to school? Read these tips for keeping your kids safe! 

2. What evergreen topics have you not covered?

Evergreen topics are those that are always of interest. Unlike something like discussing a pandemic, they don’t have a shelf life. The angles will always be relevant. Some of those in the eye care and healthcare field would include:

• What is astigmatism?
• How often do I need an eye exam?
• Who is a good candidate for contact lenses?
• 5 Reasons You Should Have a Physical

Think about your optical: trends, fashion, new frames, etc. There are hundreds of blog post ideas. What about sports and eye protection or Lasik related posts?  Content goldmine. 

3. Food-Related Topics

Yes. Food.  Eating is a big part of our lives. Most of us eat several times per day.  (Unless you’re intermittent fasting) It’s always a good idea to create blog posts related to food. They are a good way to help your patients gain an understanding about the connection between what they eat and their eye and overall health. Here are some eye care and healthcare-related blog post ideas:

• 5 Foods To Help Protect Your Eyesight
• How What You Eat Affects Your Vision
• Foods You Should Minimize for Better Health
• 5 Superfoods to Add to Your Diet

Why not help your patients understand the pros and cons of supplementation?  They are likely to encounter claims about Lutein, ZeaXanthin, Vitamins A-Z,  and Omega 3/6s all day.  Help them cut through the clutter. They’ll thank you for it. Each blog post can focus on one particular nutrient related to eye health. 

You can review a pub med article https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28208784/ and break it down into layman's terms. It shows your up to date on the literature, while making research more accessible.

4. Best Practices

Your patients can always use information regarding the best practices for taking care of their eyes and health in general. Providing them with that information helps to show that you care about their well-being even when they don’t have an appointment. Some topics that can be covered in this area include:

• The Best Way to Remove Your Eye Makeup
• Essential Vitamins that protect your Eyesight
• 5 Ways to Get Exercise When You are Short on Time
• Tips for Starting and Maintaining an Exercise Routine
• 5 Simple Ways to Get Your Family Healthy This Year

5. Advice on How to Deal with Challenges

Everyone encounters challenges, so offering up tips and advice on how to battle your way through them is useful. It’s also something that people are likely to share with others, to help them through such challenges. Article topics on how to deal with these challenges include:

• How to Not Scratch Your Eyes Out this Spring
• Have Watery Eyes? This Can Help!
• Don’t Have Time to Cook Healthy Meals? Try this!
• Have a Child Home Sick from School? Here’s What to Do!
• Tips for Beating Back the Blues so You Feel Great Again

6. Introducing them to Something New

Your patients trust you to provide them with advice, especially when it comes to trying something new. If you have a new product, healthy living tip, or other such recommendation that they can benefit from, that may make a great blog post. Here are some blog post ideas for those in eye care and healthcare that will introduce patients to something new:

• New Advances in Eye Care
• Why You Will Love These New Contacts
• 5 Reasons to Give Yoga a Try
• Try These Tips to Break Bad Habits and Get Healthy
• Circadian Biology and Blue Light

Coming up with different blog posts shouldn’t be difficult, but many ECPs and healthcare providers find it challenging. Once you know what type of angles to consider, you will be more likely to be able to come up with a list of them. You also don’t have to do the work yourself. By having someone on the team compile ideas and even write the first drafts or posts, you will reap the benefits with less effort. The key is to keep the momentum going.

Is time tight right now? Momentum. Put together an outline and hire a freelance writer to do the heavy lifting.

Great blog content and consistency are the ways to make your blog successful and get practice growth!