Kenyon Connects

Guest article by Scott Siders with Novo Writing. 

Most business owners understand the importance of regularly updating their blog with fresh and relevant content. It’s simply the most effective and affordable way to attract customers online. But there’s a big difference between knowing what to do and how to do it.

Let’s take a closer look at the “how” with the five-step process for creating a content marketing strategy that leverages your blog:

#1 – Know Your Target Audience
Before you begin creating content, you need to know who you’re writing for and what they’re interested in learning. Figure out where your target audience hangs out and go there regularly to see what they’re talking about. You can start this process by doing Google searches on the types of products and services you offer, which will lead you to relevant industry blogs and articles. Joining LinkedIn groups and participating in conversations is another excellent way to see what’s going on, as is setting up Google alerts on keywords related to your business.

#2 – Develop Your Plan
Once you know your target audience you can plan out the ways in which you’re going to create your own unique content to connect with them. Use the research you performed in step one to develop an editorial calendar with your article topics for each month. This will enable you to more easily manage the content creation process.

#3 – Write Your Content
Now that you know your target audience and have your editorial calendar completed, it’s time to write your articles. Generally speaking, you want to write articles that are about 500 words to show the search engines you’ve created a substantial piece of content. Make your articles easy for readers to scan by using subheads and bullet points.

It may sound obvious, but remember that editing is an important part of the writing process. The last thing you want to do is publish a poorly written article with grammatical and spelling mistakes. That will send your target audience to a competitor right away and will damage your brand and reputation.

#4 – Optimize Your Content
Your articles aren’t going to be very effective if nobody can find them, so you’ll want to optimize them for at least one primary keyword phrase. Link these keywords to other content on your website, such as your products and services pages, to encourage readers to explore more of your website.

#5 – Promote Your Content
There are many ways to start promoting your content. Once you’ve posted the article on your blog, you want to leverage social media to distribute it. Share it across all of your social media platforms that are relevant to your target audience, such as your status updates on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Start a conversation on the article topic in your LinkedIn groups. You also want to make sure each blog post includes social sharing buttons so that people who read and like your content can share it on their social networks as well.

One More Thing . . .
An often overlooked but critical consideration is allocating resources–both people and financial. Effectively managing the entire content marketing process can’t be done when employees or business owners have spare time (a difficult thing to come by when you’re running a business). Plan for success by dedicating an experienced in-house resource or look into outsourcing this role to a professional.

That’s it! Now you know the “how” of implementing a content marketing strategy for your business. If you have any questions before you get started, don’t hesitate to contact us at 310.792.8888 or email scott@novowriting.com.

About Novo Writing
Novo Writing is a SEO copywriting firm that specializes in content marketing. The company’s Business Optimization Program helps position businesses and their leaders as industry experts, build brand awareness, drive more qualified prospects to their websites, and improve rankings in search results. Visit www.NovoWriting.com or call 310.792.8888 to learn more.

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Anyone involved with Home Health knows that under the Conditions of Participation (COPs), you are required to have an Advisory Committee. Further representatives of all disciplines you employ and management representation needs to sit on the Committee. To meet this requirement, we see many home health agencies making the mistake of using their own clinical staff.

A Home Health Advisory Committee serves two functions: one is to listen to the reports of the home health management, give suggestions and ideas to solve problems and promote better practices for the home health agency. The second function a Home Health Advisory Committee serves is to promote the business of the home health agency. If you are only meeting the letter of the law and putting your own staff on the Committee, then you are missing the invaluable opportunity of outside support for growing your home health business.

The membership of the Home Health Advisory Committee should reflect the services your home health agency provides. If, for instance, your agency specializes in vent dependent patients, the physician on the Advisory Committee should have experience and expertise in that area. The other committee members would also be chosen based on their ability to support and give context to your particular specialty. Therefore, one would expect to see a Respiratory Therapist, representatives from an oxygen company, DME provider, Respiratory Nurse Specialist, a Discharge Planner from any specialty Hospital or Nursing Home that specializes in vent dependent patients, and a representative from the Lung Association, to name a few.

To determine who and what representation is needed on your Home Health Advisory Committee, take a look at all the services your home health agency provides. Note your home health agency service specialties, your referral sources, vendors that support that specialty service and clinical specialists needed to appropriately provide services to your patients. Representatives from each of those groups need to be added to your Home Health Advisory Board. In addition to representatives of specialties, make a list of the organizations or companies from which you want to gain referrals.

Send letters of invitation to sit on your Home Health Advisory Committee to the highest ranking individual in each of those organizations or departments of organizations. Be aggressive in gaining those representatives. If you have a contract with an insurance company, and want more of their business, ask the head of the Case Managers Department to sit on your Home Health Advisory Committee.

The failure to capitalize on this marketing and sales opportunity is one of the major mistakes we see in home health agencies. Relook at the makeup of your Home Health Advisory Committee. See who on that committee is in a place to increase desired referrals or give you insights into what would be required for your agency to become the home health agency of choice. Make a list of those in a position to assist with this opportunity and make a plan to gain those representatives on your committee.

If you are unsure of how to go about this, contact Kenyon HomeCare Consulting at 206-721-5091 or e-mail to Kenyon HomeCare Consulting.  We are here to help.

Website bounce rate is one of the most important metrics you should be tracking in your analytics. Bounce rates tell you what percentage of visitors click-away after viewing only one page of your website. This is obviously a critical statistic when you are trying to convert browsers into buyers. A simple mistake in your website strategy and design can send visitors away even if you offer the best homecare services in your area.

Here are 5 factors that may be boosting your homecare website’s bounce rate and tips to more effectively optimize your site:

1. No call to action. One of the main reasons visitors bounce from your website is that you haven’t made it easy for them to know what to do next. Attention spans are short (and even shorter online), so it’s important to make their experience smooth and natural to move from browsing mode to action mode. They want and expect guidance. They should know the next step to take within seconds of arriving on your website.

• How to fix it: Place calls to action strategically and prominently in the right places on the page. They should be above the fold and specifically relate to the reason a visitor landed on your website in the first place.

2. Too many options. While the call to action is important, having too many options will compete for visitors’ attention and cause confusion and frustration. This competition for attention naturally causes a higher bounce rate and the probability that the prospect will click-away from your website without taking the desired action.

• How to fix it: Stick to one option per landing page. If you want visitors to subscribe to your blog and buy your eBook, don’t ask for them to do both on the same page. Creating separate landing pages for each offer will reduce your bounce rate and result in higher conversions.

3. Unmet expectations. Visitors expect to see exactly what they asked for when they arrive at your website. If your page is about anything other than what is advertised, you can count on a higher bounce rate and lost revenue.

• How to fix it: Make sure the messaging in organic searches and referring sites is authentic and leads prospective customers to content that piqued their curiosity. Remember that the source of the lead can be just as important as the content on your website, so beware of referring sites that send you unqualified prospects.

4. Bad copy. Engaging, persuasive copy is crucial to reduce your website bounce rate and keep visitors wanting to learn more about your homecare services. The fastest way to lose prospective customers is to have dull, descriptive copy that doesn’t include the benefits of hiring your business.

• How to fix it: Create benefit-driven headlines, subheads, and bullets that make it easy for visitors to quickly scan content to see how your homecare company will fulfill their needs.

5. Poor design. A visually unappealing website is just as ineffective as bad copy. Put them together and you have a page that makes visitors flee to another site almost immediately – even if your homecare services are better than your competitors’. Template sites are the worst and are recognized by savvy visitors right away. An unprofessional design will hurt your credibility and increase your website bounce rate.

• How to fix it: Use high-resolution graphics, maintain your company’s branding, create an easy-to-navigate user experience, and make sure the copywriter and designer are literally on the same page. Your best bet is to hire a Web designer who knows your business and the intricacies of conversion optimization.

Avoid these common usability gaffs and implement these recommendations to reduce your website bounce rate and improve your conversion rate.

Scott Siders is the owner of Novo Writing, a company specializing in SEO (search engine optimization) copywriting and content marketing. Novo Writing works closely with businesses in a wide variety of industries to increase their exposure online, drive more traffic to their websites, and ultimately increase sales of their products and services. Novo Writing’s targeted online marketing strategies include optimized Web sites, article marketing, email marketing, blogs, social media, and much more. Get more information and start building a better brand by visiting www.NovoWriting.com, emailing scott@NovoWriting.com, or calling 714.335.5677.