For healthcare brands, the primary aim of the content is to encourage their readers to make their health, wellness, and safety a priority.
But with thousands of blogs being published every day, every piece of content is fighting to get the reader’s attention.
To make sure your content is noticed in the crowd, keep on reading.
7 Things to Avoid in Your Health Content
If you want your health content to educate your reader as well as engage them, stay steer clear of these common flaws:
1. Not Defining the Target Audience
Before initiating, the first thing to consider is defining your target audience. You should scrutinize the level of understanding your reader has about that medical topic.
You will need to adapt your tone, voice, and diction accordingly. If your content is for doctors, the language should be scientific and informative to help them stay updated with the recent advancements. While for laymen, the content should explain the problem and solution in the simplest language possible.
Your language and problem will also change according to the demography of your audience. For instance, the cause of diabetes in India is adapting to the western lifestyle. The blog should focus on the specific solution — lifestyle changes — instead of providing a generalized solution.
Keeping your audience in mind assures that the content resonates with your readers.
2. Use of Medical Jargons
You are bound to use jargon, especially if you use such language to communicate with your team. Some examples of medical jargon include terms like sub-therapeutic and iatrogenic. Jargons are prevalent in the product- or drug-related content, but it is confusing for your readers. It is a good idea to use jargon only if your target audience is medical professionals.
In the rest of the cases, avoid medical jargon. Whenever necessary, explain the concept in the first instance, and later you can use a medical term. Besides, avoid medical jargon with complicated words that you never use while talking.
Avoiding the use of medical jargon while writing for the general population ensures effective communication of your message to the readers.
3. Too Much Passive Voice
Passive voice is used too often by health writers. Health writers use passive voice too often.
Active voice, as in the previous sentence, is stronger and straight-forward as the subject is doing something, instead of taking a backseat. The passive version is considered less engaging and confusing to the readers.
That said, in some instances, passive voice makes more sense than active voice. For example, certain nouns are derived from a verb, such as preparation is derived from prepare. Here, writing “Insulin is prepared from…” is better than “We prepared insulin from..”
Content written in active voice offers a faster-moving narrative and is more engaging.
4. Weak Article Structure
A blog without a structure — introduction, middle, and conclusion — is difficult to read and not engaging. Every blog needs an appealing title, an interesting introduction and body to hook readers, and a strong conclusion.
Headlines should be in a language that resonates with your target audience. For instance, “How research is contradicting what we thought we knew about vitamin B12” is much more engaging than “vitamin B12 and Anemia.”
An abruptly ending article is also a mood killer. But some things are even worse, like a blog failing to answer the question it was posing.
Structuring your content makes it easy to read and follow.
5. Lack of Enough Evidence
The internet is full of health blogs, but not all might be accurate. To ensure authentic information, make sure all the claims are supported by research. An easy way to do this is to hyperlink some of the text to PubMed, NCBI, and other research databases.
You can also include evidence from statistics, medical specialists, and interviews.
Including evidence makes the content more convincing and authoritative.
6. Repetition of Facts
Blogs that repeat the same facts may be frustrating and boring to read. So, be aware of repetition, and each sentence should introduce a new fact or idea.
Also, try to avoid using the same words repetitively, wherever possible.
Word repetition can weigh down your content and slow down readers. Give a twist to your sentence or use a thesaurus to avoid repetition and give a smooth reading experience to your readers.
7. Not Taking Professional Support
Not all healthcare professionals are qualified to be health writers, and neither are all writers qualified to write health content. Poor-quality or inaccurate content may ruin your chance to connect with your readers and impede your message from reaching a larger population.
Writing skills and accuracy go hand in hand for health content. It could cost you a difference in getting your brand noticed and it being a failure.
If you feel you know what you want to say but struggling to express, hiring a health professional writer could be an ideal option. This way, you ensure the accuracy of the content and keep it engaging at the same time.
Now that you are aware of common mistakes, avoid them in your content, and get your brand the authority and trust it deserves!
