2 Keys to Effective Editorial Planning
No matter the ultimate goal, planning is often essential to success. With the 14th of February a mere three days away, let’s use Valentine’s Day as a relevant example. Those of you who planned ahead and already have something special arranged for your significant other this coming Friday will most likely experience a smooth-sailing Valentine’s Day. Should this be the case, your romantic evening, or perhaps weekend getaway, will likely be classified as a success by both you and your loved one.
In contrast, those of you who read the second sentence of this blog post and immediately picked up the phone to make a reservation at a nearby restaurant or local Bed & Breakfast are probably discovering, to your dismay, just how many people planned ahead. In all likelihood, you’re now praying your significant other will buy into the fact the two of you are sitting at TGI Fridays on arguably the year’s most romantic day because you wanted to “surprise them with something they would never expect; something that made them feel young again…”
So what does all this have to do with your practice? Just as logistical planning for Valentine’s Day can be crucial to its success, editorial planning (outlining a systematic implementation of content, blog, and media additions onto your website) can be critical to the success of your practice’s content marketing strategy, which, as we explained previously in How Content Marketing Will Help Your Practice, can produce brand awareness, qualified patients, and loyalty and retention – all of which can attribute to a successful practice.
Although multiple components ultimately factor into editorial planning, your editorial calendar should always be planned with two key elements in mind: Relevancy and Consistency.
Relevancy
Relevancy is crucial from both a consumer and SEO standpoint. For example, breast cancer awareness month occurs during October of every year, meaning “breast cancer” and corresponding terms will be popular searches. If you’re practice offers breast reconstruction, it would behoove you to plan to add some fresh content regarding this viable option for breast cancer patients around this time of year. Perhaps a couple blog posts answering popular, timely questions such as, “What are my reconstruction options after breast cancer?” or “Are breast implants my only option after a mastectomy?” When patients type these questions into a search engine, your answer (or, in this case, blog) will be more likely to rank higher in search results, leading the patient to your site.
The same sort of strategy can apply to teeth whitening treatments during wedding season, dermal fillers leading up to the holidays, and any other trends you see occurring at your practice during certain times a year.
Consistency
Websites updated with fresh, quality content on a consistent basis – be it new procedural pages, blog posts, press releases, or a combination of the sort – are favorably rewarded in SEO rankings by Google and other leading search engines. To these search engine giants, regular additions show that your practice is dedicated to ensuring your website remains a quality resource for online viewers seeking information; not just a stagnant, unattended host of outdated material. This recognition can help boost your SEO rankings, therefore helping to increase your online exposure.
Whether you plan to add four page additions accompanied by eight blog posts per year, or eight page additions accompanied by sixteen blog entries and an assortment of new articles and/or press releases per year, the key is to intersperse your new content evenly throughout the year so as to maintain a high level of consistency.
Conclusion
In summation, editorial planning should center around relevancy and consistency. As you plan your editorial calendar, anticipate and prepare for what sort of terms and phrases will be “buzzing” on the Internet at particular times of year. Then fill the rest of your calendar with quality content updates to your site – including anything from page additions and blog posts, to new treatment announcements and practice news – all on a systematic, consistent basis.
Our team is highly experienced in developing and implementing customized content marketing strategies for a variety of medical and dental specialties. For help with your editorial planning, please don’t hesitate to contact Rosemont Media today.