The purpose of home care blog marketing is to give families answers and bring them to your website.
Caregivers are searching for information and support online. They are not searching for your company news and special events posts.
Inform caregivers with professional articles and resource guides on your website instead.
Read on to learn how to stand out from your competition and increase business with your blog.
In This Guide
Why Market With Home Care Blog
Per Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs (PDF page 15), 76% of B2C marketers used their blog to distribute content.
Marketing professionals know the value of businesses marketing to consumers (B2C) through their website blog.
Blog articles on your website:
- Increase leads by getting your business found on search engines like Google.
- Decrease time to acquire clients because articles answer their questions.
- Prove to caregivers your company has experience in helping older adults.
- Highlight why families need the type of services your company offers.
Promote your home care blog by showing families you want to help them.
Your blog confirms your commitment to your clients and prospects. It represents the integrity of your company.
Without a resource blog, you’re missing chances to help your leads.
Out of 21 senior care websites I studied, 76% had blogs. What a wasted opportunity for 24% of the companies. Families will leave their website without the information they need.
Caregivers and older adults research companies online.
Use your website blog to answer common questions your marketing, admissions and clinical teams receive from families. Then your admissions team can focus on intake and clinical team can focus on care of older adult.
Become a resource to your clients and prospects. Once on your website blog, they will get the information they need.
Your sales team can share the articles with their referral sources if they want. And referral sources can refer their clients to your resource guides.
Build your online presence over time. Publishing articles is key to growth.
Support your clients and increase your business.
Read more: Why Create A Home Care Blog?
Plan Your Home Care Blog Marketing
Plan your blog.
Decide the overall focus of your content.
Make sure your blog articles are on topics that relate to your services. Then families will see how they can benefit from hiring your company.
Check out blogs of other home care companies to see how you can be different than them.
Show leads you understand their needs. Write content that addresses their questions and concerns.
Keep your blog focused on solutions for families. Publish company news and events on a News page on your website instead.
Navigation Bar
Place blog on the menu at the top of your website so families and search engines see it is important.
Keywords
Pull older adults and caregivers to your website by including words they are searching for in your blog articles.
Choose search words (keyphrases) to use for blog, categories and articles. Keyphrases help search engines index your content for your intended subject.
Categories
Organize your blog into categories. They help families decide the groups of articles they want to read.
Categories also help Google and Bing understand the blog articles on these pages are related. This helps them list the articles on search results.
My research showed 19% of senior care blogs had 0 categories, 57% had 3-10, and 24% had 11-28+.
Start with 3 categories. Too many categories or none gets confusing for leads trying to pick articles they want to read.
I do not recommend using tags as they can end up competing with your subtopic articles (see “Length” section below).
Linked Articles
Get older adults and caregivers to read more and stay longer on your website. Then the chances go up they will start feeling comfortable using your services.
Publish articles on topics and subtopics that connect through internal links.
Blog articles need to link together so families and search engines can understand how your topics and subtopics work together.
Resource guides organize subtopics into 1 main topic article. This saves time for families who have no time to browse all your articles.
Length
Create 1 article per category that is 2000 to 2500 words long. This main topic guide offers families complete information on a subject.
Aim to write 5-8 articles per category that are 1000 words long. These subtopic articles show caregivers you have the knowledge to take care of their loved one.
Each blog article gives older adults more chances to find your website during their searches.
Senior care resource blogs are important.
Information is power to the families of older adults needing your services.
Out of the 16 senior care companies I researched with blogs, less than 1/3 had articles long enough. One business had some articles close to 2000 words. Four other companies had blog articles around 1000 words.
Another 7 businesses included 600-900 word articles on their blog. These articles are less visible on search engines because of the vast amount of content online in this word length.
Finally, 4 companies displayed 300-500 word posts on their blogs. This word count may be all right for service pages, but these high-level posts do not give families enough information.
Read more: How to Plan Your Home Care Blog for Company Growth
Structure Your Senior Care Articles
The structure of your articles is a key part of marketing your home care blog. Help families glance at them quickly for the information they need.
Plus, search engines may place your content more prominently when you publish easy-to-read articles on your blog.
Include the following in each blog article:
- Headline: the difference of older adults reading article or not
- Introduction: around 6 sentences explaining what blog is about
- Table of contents: direct prospects to copy they want to read
- Subheadings: article section headings that caregivers can scan
- Body: short sentences and paragraphs with some bullet points
- Images: help families understand and recall your content easier
- Conclusion: 7 to 11 sentences recapping main points to remember
- Call to action link: get leads to move toward becoming a client
Only 38% of the senior care blogs I examined had more than 1 image in their articles. You need more than 1 featured image at the beginning of your blog article or resource guide.
Prospects and clients may avoid long portions of written content on a page. It is more likely they will read some of your article if you have images breaking up the copy.
Use a call-to-action (CTA) at the end of each blog article.
An example is “Keep Reading” followed by a link to another guide. Because the longer prospects are on your website, the more confident they will feel about hiring you.
Or add a clickable “Contact Us” or “Call Now” button.
Organized content helps search engines understand your articles. Then they know what subject to use for listing your content on their search results.
The more visible your articles are in search engines, the greater the chance leads will check out your website.
Read more: How to Structure Home Care Articles for Your Blog
Select Options for Your Home Care Blog
Decide which blog options you want before you add articles to your website.
Make sure you display your company in a professional way. Because your home care blog promotes your business indirectly through your resource articles and guides.
Types of Articles
- Essential guide: “Complete Guide to Hospice”
- How to: “How to Hire an In-Home Caregiver”
- Comparison: “Home Care vs. Assisted Living”
- List: “10 Ways to Make a Home Fall Proof”
- Why: “Why Home Health Is Important”
- What: “What is Palliative Care?”
Articles can be a combination of types.
Broad topic guides have links to more detailed subtopic articles. Together they fully explain topics both caregivers and older adults are searching for.
Date or No Date
Of the senior care companies I studied, 69% dated their articles, while 31% did not.
Dated articles show families and search engines you are continuing to help older adults and their caregivers. Plus, they confirm your industry knowledge is up-to-date.
If the articles need significant revisions and updates, you can make the changes and republish them with the new date.
In contrast, companies look at their articles with no dates on them as timeless resources they never plan to update.
But these articles will not show up in date searches unless it’s for the year of the original publish date. Google knows this date, even when you do not date your blog article.
Allow Comments or Not
Looking at 16 senior care websites, 81% had blog comments turned off in their content management system (CMS).
Only 19% of the companies allowed comments. There was only 1 comment from a client and it contained their personal health information (PHI).
PHI is part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
As many senior care companies need to be HIPAA compliant, it may be best to turn your blog comments off. Add a “Contact Us” link at the end of your articles instead.
If you choose to take comments on your blog, make sure you follow HIPAA guidelines for social media.
Author Bio
Consider adding a professional blog author bio to the bottom of each of your posts. The bio highlights the article writer’s experience on the subject. Search engines, families and referral sources like to see the writer is qualified.
Include full name, work title and 3 sentences explaining their background.
Add a headshot and social media link.
Numbered Pages
You may see numbers at the bottom of a page of blog articles. You can click on the number to get to the next page. This is called pagination.
With pagination, seach engine crawlers can find and therefore index all your blog content.
The absence of pages to click on is called infinite scroll. This option works well for viewing your articles on mobile devices.
Two other options include an infinite scroll with a “Load More” button and infinite scroll with pagination.
Make sure your choice works for people with disabilities who only use a keyboard or screen reader.
Read more: 7 Types of Home Care Articles That Generate Leads
Include Blog SEO to Bring Leads to Website
SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps your articles show up on Google and Bing for the topics families are searching for.
Search engines like to see your website produce blog content that completely covers subjects.
Google Search watches health-related sites more closely for accuracy. They want to make sure your website’s copy does not negatively impact the health and safety of older adults.
Show Google your company is qualified and credible through your content and external links to reputable resources.
Publish articles on your website for lasting growth. This is the goal for promoting your home care blog online.
It may take a while to start getting leads using SEO. But your blog articles will continue to bring older adults and caregivers to your website when they search online.
PPC
In contrast to SEO, you may gain leads faster by turning to pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Get prospects to click on your ad on Google or Bing.
But PPC ads are a quick fix, not a lasting solution to client growth. There are some drawbacks to running a pay-per-click campaign.
When you quit running ads, the leads will also quit.
You will need to spend time monitoring you ad so it stays near the top of search results.
Some leads will not click on your ad. They feel it will only be an ad and not give them the advice they are looking for.
If leads click your ad, they need to give you some sort of contact information for ad to be profitable.
Read more: 6 Reasons to Focus on Home Care Content Not Ads
Conclusion: Use Home Care Blog Marketing
Drive leads to your website through your home care blog marketing.
Increase the presence of your company in search engines with each article you publish.
Show Google and Bing you are offering articles on your website that leads are clicking on.
Provide written content older adults and caregivers are looking for that relates to your services.
Organize blog content into categories, then topics and subtopics.
Link the articles together so families and search engines get the information they need.
Structure the articles and guides for quick browsing and understanding.
Remember this: families realize the value of your company when your articles solve their problems and relate to your services.
Keep reading: Guide to Effective Online Home Care Content
