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Who Updates The Veterinary Blog? What If I Don’t Have Time?

07 Jun

Who Updates The Veterinary Blog? What If I Don’t Have Time?

by Vijayinder Singh
in Blog, Veterinary SEO, Veterinary Social Media
Comments

Being a veterinarian has always been a time consuming and tireless job.  From staying up to date on changes in technology and veterinary medicine, to hiring and retaining superior staff, to our day to day work with clients, there often isn’t time for much else.  There are certain tasks, however, which should be fit into your schedule in order to work on your business and continue to ensure the practice maintains healthy growth and profitability.

One of these is keeping up with your veterinary blog.
Blogs are an important marketing tool which helps to bring prospective clients to your website while allowing the practice to engage with active clients on a more personal level. The greatest hesitation in launching a veterinary blog is that the maintaining can seem overwhelming, especially when it means taking time out of the veterinarian’s or practice manager’s busy schedule. Before tackling this concern, lets first consider the task at hand.

How Much and How Often?

Part of what makes blog posts so effective for improving search engine rankings is the frequency with which new posts are added.  This doesn’t mean you have to commit to writing seven days a week.  Three to four posts per month is sufficient, although you can get away with as little as once per month.  It’s also important to note that blog posts, by nature, are not long or extremely complicated.
As long as the material is timely and of value to the reader, 350 words is enough and this doesn’t have to take a great deal of time to compose.

Who Will Find The time?

Like everything in a busy practice, assigning responsibility is necessary. Whether it is a veterinarian, practice manager, or veterinary technician, one practice member should take charge of the blog.
Writing the articles on the other hand, can take several forms. The first is that the person in charge writes all the articles. At a schedule of every other week this should be achievable. Alternatively, if a practice sees the benefit and would like to ramp up their blogging frequency, the blog leader should schedule right into the appointment book time to create blog posts across a number of staff members. This ensures both that the work is shared and that the frequency is maintained. A final proofing from the blog leader before going live will ensure posts maintain a consistent practice voice and rigorous proofing. Practice managers tend to be the best at this sort of thing 🙂

What Do I Write About?

Take some time to come up with a few topics to start with.  Don’t be afraid to ask your clients what they’d like to learn about – after all, they’ll likely be the ones reading your blog.  What types of common questions do you hear in your day to day work that might make for an interesting and informative blog post?  Staying abreast of industry news is also an excellent way to find relevant topics.

 

For instance, new tools, techniques or tips that would be helpful to your clients in caring for their pets make wonderful, informative posts.  Additionally, comments you’ve received on previous posts can be a great resource of ideas for future topics.

Establishing and keeping up with your veterinary blog can seem like a daunting task, but it’s an incredibly important part of the modern practice’s online presence. Posting regular, unique, and fresh content will not only get your veterinary website ranked higher on search engines, but it will also foster valuable relationships with your existing veterinary clients.

If the veterinarians can’t seem to find the time in their schedule to handle the task, it’s perfectly fine to delegate the responsibility to a staff member or even hire a professional company, as long as it’s done.

 

The benefits to a practice of becoming an expert educator within the community ultimately translates to increased client loyalty and increased new client acquisition rates.

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