3 Mistakes To Avoid When Writing Blog Posts On Functional Medicine

Writing to promote your functional medicine practice and activities has never been easier.

There are countless resources to draw on as more integrative health thought leaders and advanced practitioners step out into the world to share their original findings and take advantage of the growing acceptance of natural medicine.

You (and I) can find more study-based evidence to support your ideas: PubMed has published 6300 articles on the thyroid so far this year...

Source

And now that 77% of all Americans own a smartphone, potential access to your content has never been greater.

So how can you make the most of this opportunity? From my experience, in three main ways.

Avoid Mistake #1: Using Long Words That Reduce Accessibility (Scientific Terms = Opportunity Lost)

Now, I say scientific terms, but we could probably expand that to include all medical language, complex phrasing and formal words. You see, the average reading level in the USA is fairly low: as writers, we should ideally be aiming for 8th grade level accessibility.

Source

This could actually make your content much more popular. The majority of the best-selling authors have extremely accessible material.

Source

What does this mean? It means finding ways to shorten sentences, use shorter words, and make what you say wonderfully simple. It takes time! But it's worth it. Your ideal client or patient demands less elucidating, characterizing and prevalence-ing. They want to see fewer cases of "thyroxine-binding globulin", "serum levels", and antibody naming without explanation.

This can be a challenge. And it feels somehow morally wrong to write underneath your educational level. Right? Take heart; the results will be worth it!

A simple solution: find someone with an 8th-grade reading level to highlight all the terms in your work that they don't understand.

You could also put together a working list of terms and their simple definition for you and/or your writing team to refer to whenever needed. The list could also be added to a section of your editorial guidelines (please email me if you'd like help creating yours).

Mistake #2: Your Post Is Too Long, Or Too Short (Unsatisfied Need = Opportunity Lost)

Is our attention span getting shorter? Well, the "fact" that our attention spans allegedly now match that of a goldfish turned out to be less than ideally scientific—more of a survey that no longer seems to be available online.

But I agree with Entrepreneur writer Shaun Buck: the problem may be less about attention span and more about the sheer number of options available to your reader at any one time.

If your article is too long, they may be constantly wondering if reading someone else's article might be a better use of their time.

If your article is too short, they may be left feeling disappointed and quickly move on to content that fulfills their current need or answers their burning question more fully. (The exception here might be that you're using the post as a copywriting master's tease, and it's deliberately leading your reader elsewhere. In which case, bravo!)

The bottom line: your blog post should never be 200 words long (in my modest opinion), unless you are confident that your reader's question or need can be answered or satisfied in so few words, or you are indeed leading them straight to something juicy that will deliver the value they desire.

How long should it be? Around 2,000 words in length, if it's about a health topic, according to my experience, and these stats. At that length, your post should provide lots of value, and answer the reader's top questions on the subject.

Can you go longer? Yes... unless that means your content is going to contain fluff! For longer posts up to 10,000 words: cut all fluff, and only cover what you think your reader absolutely needs to know, and sign off there. Be relevant, stay on point, deliver useful info, and then stop. Easy.

Mistake #3 Creating Generic Content (Lack Of A Personal Connection = Opportunity Lost)

I have nothing against content, marketing and digital agencies, and the like. They have provided some of my clients with cost-effective content for years with no problems. They improved my clients' SEO remarkably, until RankBrain appeared.

But generic content has always left a bad taste in my mouth. It's hard to make an emotional connection with content that leaves you wondering who was behind it. And that means it's usually hard to make a connection with the practice behind the article, too.

A lack of personalization/targeting/that personal touch can also come across in other ways, right down to using the words "we" versus using the word "you," and the style you write in.

These little things make a huge difference when it comes to pulling in your ideal client and making them your biggest fan. Mastering this is relatively easy: define your ideal client down to what color socks they wear, and then write like you are having an intimate chat with them.

If you need some help with that, just let me know at jessie@jessiemaguire.com.

I hope you have a great day, and enjoyed this post.

—Jessie