Blogging for Life Science: The Why and The How

While blogs are traditionally considered a platform for writers and thought leaders (and an important marketing tool), they can play a much more important role. Providing a helpful resource designed to inform and guide visitors to whichever solution best fits their needs.

What is a blog and why is it essential for your life science website?

Do you need website visitors and traffic, or do you need to educate people about your innovation or product launches - or inform patients or healthcare professionals about your latest developments?

Then a blog is the perfect, if not an essential, resource to add to your website. And we have the data to prove blogging delivers to these goals.

We've worked on blog content for many of our clients and have data that proves a direct correlation between content and increased business success. We have the data; if you want to see our case studies, get in touch.

On the internet, high-quality, relevant content that appeals to searchers is essential for the widest reach. Search engines favour websites that are frequently updated with new content. A 'blog' (in this context, regular written content – could be news, insights, educational articles) can be the perfect place on your website, curated into a valuable pool of resources appealing to a wide range of audiences

We have direct evidence and data to prove that search engines favour sites that update frequently and a blog helps collect all of your content into a useful pool of resources for your many audiences.

Blogging, content writing, educational articles all allow you to write specific, new website content tailored for the different audiences visiting your life science website.

Blogs are extraordinarily flexible, in both structure and content. On just one topic, a new product, for example, you can produce several blogs tailored for different audiences. Talk about how it will transform patients’ lives, or how it will disrupt the industry, or how the science behind it works and you have successfully written for three completely disparate audiences.

Another advantage of a blog is how it can be used to guide readers through your website. By using tags and links throughout your blog, a reader can find and follow their topic of interest as tailored to their needs. Combining a flexible blogging structure with Search Engine Optimisation, you can drive engagement from specific audiences to your website.

A range of content types that appeal to different people

Blog or article content that includes multimedia assets can create a range of valuable resources for all of your readers, from science to none science readers.

Creating an extensive range of blog or article resources, the use of categories, topics, and tags can add a well-resourced structure to your website, guiding readers to educational content on your website.

Blogging for Life Science: The Why and The How

We have direct evidence that blogging for a life science comopany has direct impact to your business.

Ask for our blog conversion case studies

Where life science blogging goes wrong

Blogging is much more than stringing a few sentences together and hitting “Post” (unfortunately, otherwise this blog would be a lot easier.) There are a number of specific factors to consider in addition to highlighting the features of your product, or telling your company story in a blog post.

Common mis-steps in blogging include:

Failing to target a specific audience – are they heavily scientific or from a non-science background but commissioned to reach out to you
Failing to created media rich content which appeals to different types of reader
Tone of voice not in line with your brand – life science brands will benefit from a human facing personality
Infrequent or irregular updating of content - we can help you to create regular, relevant science content
Not using tags/links to guide readers to other resources
Not using Search Engine Optimised (SEO) terms to boost engagement

Your blog is the main gateway for people to access your website, your company, your expertise and your solution. Use it to speak with them effectively.

Our Top 5 Tips for creating a highly readable life science/healthcare blog

Tip #1: Target your audience specifically

Your audience is made up of many different stakeholders such as patients, investors, researchers and customers. The sooner you recognise who they are and what they need, the sooner you can create tailored content that speaks to them individually, making it easier for them to find the solutions they need from your website. For example, investors want to know the company’s story and how it relates to value creation.

Tip #2: Keep in line with your brand

Your life science brand is your company’s personality online. Blogs and other content must be produced to brand guidelines to a consistently high standard. This helps build trust with customers, patients and readers.

Tip #3: Consistent updating and timeliness

Consistent updates are helpful for search engines algorithms. Plan ahead with a content calendar, using touchstones such as major conferences and international awareness days relevant to patients or your field of research. Tie in product updates, company news and expert opinions as necessary.

Tip #4: Create structure

When we talk about a blog, we mean it to be a resource area of relevant news, publications, case studies, and multimedia. Without clear structure, this can be overwhelming to a newcomer on your website. ‘Categories’ on a blog act like the table of contents at the start of a book, while ‘tags’ on a post are more like the index. Guide targeted pieces of content by strategically using tags to create unique paths through your categories for different audiences. Learn more about the Do’s and Don’ts of tagging here.

Tip #5: Make use of SEO

A frequently updated blog with helpful tags is not enough without guided SEO insights into what your audiences are searching for. Incorporating SEO terms into your blog will attract your different audiences to relevant content on your website, ultimately helping them find solutions faster.

Why you shouldn’t go it alone

Running a blog is not a task that should be left to researchers who may be passionate but lack time to properly build and structure content on a reliable schedule. They are important contributors, however blog content should not be dismissed as such a simple task.

There are many ways to organise and structure your blog posts to make informative content for your audiences. Finding a structure to suit your needs and audience requires an expert eye to help plan, develop and structure your blog.

The Takeaway.

Blog content is an effective way to keep your website content refreshed for a growing audience, showcasing your expertise and brand identity, as well as guiding a diverse audience to the information they need about your company. In starting a blog, ask yourself these questions:

Who do you want to target with your blog?
What topics do they need to know?
Where will these posts connect with your website and other content?
When can you post? And can you do it regularly?
Why is it important that people know what you do?
How do you best communicate that with them? (Text, multimedia, infographics)

Arttia Creative is your expert company in life science communication, brand creation and web design. We have an unrivalled team of specialists ready to work with you.

We can create, plan and develop life science and healthcare blogs for an array of audiences in many life science fields including biotech, biopharma, healthcare and medtech. We help you identify those audiences, craft your message to suit their needs and leverage the power of SEO and tags to build a winning blog for all your audience archetypes.

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