The health and wellness industry is big business. In retail sales for food, nutrition, and beverages, the health care industry has topped $200 billion, according to BrandonGaille. With such a huge market for health-related services, it pays to invest in content marketing for health and wellness companies. If your business is part of or related to this industry, getting a few wellness content writers is one of the best ways to improve your digital marketing strategy.

 

 

With consistency and quality, your business can improve consumer lead generation and promote long-term success in today’s digital marketplace. Health and wellness content writers can generate this kind of marketing magic through effective blogging and SEO marketing. Wondering how exactly they do the trick? Read more and we’ll convince you why you should get some health writers on the job.

 

What is Health and Wellness Content Marketing?

No matter what industry you’re in, digital marketing is necessary to stay afloat and find more customers. More people are going online and some businesses are only online to begin with. The best way to be found by readers on the internet is through SEO.

Search engine optimization is how you make your website visible to search engines like Google. Those tricky algorithms are designed to help users find the answers they want from their search queries. Keywords play a big part in this.

So, as a health and wellness website, you need to be seen. The best way to do that is by providing valuable content (and keywords) that users are looking for. Through content marketing, you can provide a variety of quality solutions and information for interested readers. This leads to more traffic on your website and, more importantly, an increase in lead generation. Take a look at this example from Livestrong to see how a successful health and wellness website uses content to its advantage.

 

But content marketing isn’t just about providing a few articles here and there. It takes steady work and careful optimization. A health and wellness content writer can help you make the process easier.

 

The Need For Health and Wellness Content Writers

Strategic health and wellness content marketing propels startups and boosts the sales and position of established companies. Health writers are a big part of this strategy because they get the fire started. They establish your company online through the quality content they provide on your website. With a little help from social media, traffic begins to boom. Calls to action and other marketing methods then lead to further sales.

However, there are more reasons why wellness content writers are valuable. Not only do they provide the content needed, but they also give a human touch that attracts customers and improves traffic. They are the backbone of your content strategy. Here are two necessities that any freelance health and fitness writer provides:

Value

Content marketing goes above and beyond traditional marketing methods, which focus solely on selling. Today’s content marketing offers modern savvy consumers quality information and useful data. By giving your audience of potential and current customers thought-provoking, helpful data, you are demonstrating that you care about them and their challenges.

 

 

In the health and wellness industry, content marketing means offering valuable advice while positioning products and services in a good light. You offer ideal solutions to solve problems and reach goals before finally urging your audience to buy from your business. There are many techniques you can use to get your message out there, but almost all of them include utilizing a health and fitness writer. These experts can portray useful information and spin a compelling argument for your services. This all leads back to the valuable content they create.

Relevance

As an established health and wellness business, your content should always tie back to your brand image. Topics and pages need to point back to your services and your role in the industry. Luckily, a wellness content writer knows the importance of having a consistent brand voice. Whether in the form of a call to action or simply mentioning health-centered topics, they can create fascinating content that all lead back to you.

Along with creating relevant content, health and wellness freelance writers are often familiar with SEO tactics. This includes using keywords that will help potential leads find your content on Google. With proper formatting and readable content, your blog posts can receive a lot more attention online.

 

Top 5 Methods of Wellness Content Writers

So, if wellness writers use value and relevancy to create stunning products, what type of content should be written? How do health writers best get the attention of readers? The following 4 methods have proven to be some of the most effective when utilizing health and fitness content writing:

 

1. Start Fitness Blogging

If you do not have a fitness blog for your health and wellness company, start one now. These days, everyone has a blog, and there is a good reason. Blogs are an excellent way to use health and wellness content marketing to engage with your audience.

 

 

Blogs are the perfect locations for a steady inflow of quality content. A wellness content writer can use a website’s blog to promote services, write about health and wellness topics and engage with readers. With a little SEO and fresh posts, your business will start attracting visitors who are interested in the content you offer. With a few pushes, you can start converting readers into customers.

Companies in many fields ranging from natural skincare to essential oils to HVAC installers use blogs to give their audiences added value from useful information while gently selling their products and services. In fact, 53% of businesses say blogging is their most important content marketing strategy, according to HubSpot.

When it comes to creating the content for your fitness blog, you don’t have to do it on your own. You can utilize the help of a freelance health and fitness writer to help you craft engaging, well-written, useful blogs that your reader base will appreciate.

 

2. Get Personal

Most readers are looking for information that speaks right to them and their current situation. Getting personal is one of the greatest superpowers of a wellness content writer. If you can speak right to your target market, their interest in your services will only improve. Our advice to get personal is relevant on two levels:

• First, target your content marketing for health and wellness to your customers, current and potential. Let them know you understand the problems and difficulties they face and show them how your products and services can make their lives easier. For example, if you are a dentist, have your health content writers share information about cavity prevention and finish by telling readers how your wellness checkups are an integral part of averting tooth decay.

• Secondly, tell your audience a bit about yourself. By putting a face on your business, you make your company more accessible to consumers, and they are more likely to perceive you as someone who understands them. You can talk to customers and through the help of a health and wellness writer you can share their stories, and you also can feature interviews with employees. However, you have many options to express some personality. Get creative. You can do this with photographs, infographics, blogs, videos, slideshows, and even music.

With a little help from your style guide, a wellness content writer can create content that achieves both criteria of becoming personal. Not only will this improve the readability of your content, but it can also help your company in the long run.

 

3. Understand Your Customers

Each member of your audience – every potential buyer – goes on a journey before he or she buys your products and services, as the infographic from NeilPatel.com shows. As a marketer, it is your task to create and match health and fitness content to every stage of your customers’ journey. Almost half – about 49% – of today’s marketers are learning to create and post content that aligns with their buyers in every stage of their journey, according to LookBookHQ.

 

 

You can speed up this process by investing in a health and wellness content writer that can learn, understand and disseminate the important information about your products, services and brand to existing and potential customers. Once the writer has invested in your brand style and tone, they can help to scale health content creation and allow you to keep your brand consistent across your writing.

 

4. Create Wellness Content From Asking Questions

You heard right. Ask your customers questions. While you want to present yourself as knowledgeable in the health and wellness industry, a sure way to turn your audience off is by not engaging with them. Today’s consumers expect interaction, and you need to give it to them.

For example, nutritionist McKel Hill runs the health and wellness brand Nutrition Stripped, which is all over the internet on multiple social media platforms, LinkedIn, and blogs – her own as well as interviews on other blogs. She offers her readers recipes for whole-food dishes and engages them by asking questions. She asks them what their favorite foods and most-liked flavors are, or she interests them with question-and-answer quiz formats.

Whatever set-up she chooses, the key to her continuing success is the interaction Hill has as a wellness content writer with her readers. By asking questions, she learns what is important to her specific audience while showing her respect for them. When customers feel you value them and care enough to have regular contact with them, they are much more likely to listen to what you have to say and, ultimately, to make a purchase.

Your wellness content writers can do the same thing by writing about hot topics and encouraging readers to interact. With the information that readers provide, your content team can create FAQ posts or focus on sharing tips that readers are looking for. Either way, the writers you hire can find plenty to write about.

 

5.   Be Consistent in Your Health and Wellness Writing

Along with creating quality blog posts and landing pages, a wellness content writer can provide consistency in the busy marketing world. Posting more content can bring a steady influx of readers to your website, and it can build up your reputation online. The more quality content you provide, the more readers begin to trust you and your services.

 

 

Some health and fitness content can be recycled and repurposed, a tactic used by about 60% of marketers, as determined by LookBookHQ. However, you need to post fresh health and wellness marketing content regularly, ideally at least one piece of new wellness content every day, to reap the benefits that content marketing brings.

It takes about 32 hours to write 16 blog posts, this being the recommended minimum for each month, according to Hubspot. Producing effective new health and fitness content takes time and skill. Consider these important questions.

• Can you produce new health and fitness content consistently on your own?
• Do you understand what SEO is and how to use keywords effectively in your content without “stuffing” them and making the copy sound stilted and self-serving?
• Do you have time to put in necessary research and to compile data in order to write useful content that benefits your audience?
• Are you a skilled health and wellness content writer?

If you answered no to any of these questions, consider outsourcing this vital content creation task to a dedicated content company that has wellness writers, health writers and fitness writers that can bring your blog to life. The benefits of effective content marketing for health and wellness businesses outweigh concerns over expense, and the cost of hiring an experienced health and fitness writing specialist may be less than you think.

 

Find Quality Health and Wellness Content Writers

Considering how time-consuming and skill-specific creating great content marketing for health and wellness companies is, it makes good business sense to hire a dedicated content company with health and wellness writers to do this vital task for you.

 

 

BKA Content carefully vets its health and fitness content writers, and dedicated account managers make it easy to order and understand the content writing process. Ordering health and wellness copy from us, whether an entire website or one blog post, is easy and fun. Why burden yourself with writing the content you need when we have health and wellness writers that can do it for you, leaving you free to focus on your business?

Contact us to find out how we can help you as a wellness marketing company with important content marketing for your business.

 

Maybe you’re a health care provider looking to expand beyond the realm of clinical work. Maybe you’re a fitness expert looking to reach a wider audience. Or maybe you’re someone with a talent for writing and an interest in health and wellness looking to apply your skills. Whatever the case, you may be interested in a new venture as a health writer.

 

What Health Writer Jobs Exist?

Whether you are approaching health writing as a clinician or a layperson, the steps to becoming a health writer are more similar than you might expect. You may look at it as a side hustle, particularly if you are a provider satisfied with your clinical position or a layperson just starting out. However, health writing can turn into a lucrative career. Projected earnings vary depending on a number of factors:

• Whether you are an employee or a freelancer
• The type of work you do
• Your experience
• Where you live

Nevertheless, according to the American Medical Writers Association, even a beginning or junior-level medical writer can earn between $52,000 and $80,000 per year.

 

What Is Health Writing?

“Health writing” is a broad term with different connotations for various situations. It can include a freelance health and fitness writer who writes light lifestyle pieces for consumption by the general public as well as a scientist who writes research-heavy tomes for use in the medical community. According to one definition, medical fiction also counts as health writing, so authors such as Robin Cook and Michael Crichton could also be considered health writers, although I wouldn’t look to their books for guidance on how to live well.

When I use the term “health writing” in this article, I’m looking at it as a large category of writing related to general health and well-being that’s divided into three main subcategories:

• Medical Writing: Work related specifically to the science of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, which can be either professional-facing or public-facing
• Wellness Writing: Work that is usually public-facing and devoted to promoting a general state of well-being as it relates to intrapersonal matters, such as lifestyle and diet, as well as socio-economic factors
• Fitness Writing: Similar to wellness writing in audience and scope, but focused specifically on maintaining a healthy weight and muscle mass through sports and exercise

If you want to be a health writer, then regardless of what subcategory you choose to specialize in, make sure that the content you put out is accurate and factual. It must also draw from reputable sources. Both your audience and the people who hire you to write the content expect and demand reliable information based on scientific data.

 

What Does a Health Writer Do?

The answer to this question depends partly on what subcategory of health writing most interests you. For example, a magazine may advertise “fitness writers needed” to create how-to articles about effective exercise techniques. Because medical writing may be either public-facing or professional-facing, there are many different types of content that you may write when working in this specific subcategory.

 

Professional-Facing Content

Professional-facing content is written for an audience of health care professionals, including doctors, researchers, nurses, physical therapists, lab technicians, etc. It may include manuscripts and articles intended for publication in a medical journal or presentations for scientific conferences. It may also include research proposals, clinical trial protocols, or study reports. Textbooks for medical students or educational content for Continuing Medical Education programs are additional examples.

 

Public-Facing Content

Public-facing content is intended to be read by the general public on sites like WebMD for patients with particular health conditions and their families, as well as people who are conducting basic research or seeking information generally. The health writer needs to make such content comprehensible to an audience of laypeople, which means using plain language for the most part and keeping medical terms and jargon to a minimum. If you are writing public-facing content, you should be prepared to explain any medical terminology that you end up using in the text.

Medical journalism is one of the most common types of public-facing health writing. When a new medical development or breakthrough occurs, a medical journalist explains it to the public in the form of a magazine or newspaper article. Medical journalists may also write press releases for university research facilities, private pharmaceutical companies, etc.

Another opportunity for a health writer interested in public-facing content is patient education. When a patient is diagnosed with a disease, he or she will likely turn to other sources to find out as much as possible about his or her condition. Patient education writers perform a valuable service by interpreting clinical information about the disease into plain language that those affected can understand clearly.

 

Are Health Writers in Demand?

As you enter into your new venture, you may encounter multiple pleas of “health writers wanted.” There are several reasons why health writers are currently in high demand and likely to stay that way.

 

Medical Industry Growth

One really exciting and rewarding aspect of working in the medical industry in general, and the field of medical communication in particular, is that there is always something new and fascinating to learn. Scientists are constantly conducting research into disease processes, treatment techniques, diagnostic tools, and pharmaceutical therapies. Health writers are a vital link in explaining new medical developments to physicians and patients alike.

 

Patient Education Need

The current COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the vital role that a health writer can play in disease management and prevention. The disease is caused by a novel coronavirus that emerged less than a year ago. Because the disease is new, researchers have had to work quickly yet thoroughly to gain an understanding of the virus, its effects and its contagiousness, as well as effective means of preventing the spread.

Medical writers have had a crucial role to play in providing the necessary information to health care professionals and the general public, which is not an easy task for several reasons. As researchers’ understanding of the virus grew, the information changed. Articles about COVID-19 sometimes became out of date almost as quickly as they were written. At the same time, there has been a wave of misinformation disseminated through social media outlets. Part of a health writer’s responsibility is to evaluate sources and reject the unreliable ones to be sure that the information presented is as accurate as possible based on the most recent data available.

The need for accurate and timely patient education is also evident in the aging baby boomer population. Born during the first two decades following World War II, baby boomers are currently the second-largest generation of adults in the United States after millennials. The oldest baby boomers reached retirement age in approximately 2010. By 2030, all of them will be at least 65 years old.

As baby boomers age, they become susceptible to a wider range of health issues, some of which are degenerative in nature. Boomers, their family members, and their caregivers need access to accurate information about specific health problems they may face, as well as thoughtful guidance about health and wellness targeted specifically to older people. At the same time, health care providers need detailed literature about providing effective treatment to a burgeoning elderly population.

 

What Are the Steps To Become a Health Writer?

If you are already a medical professional, the path to becoming a health writer may be slightly different than that which you would take as a journalist or professional writer without specialized health knowledge. Nevertheless, the steps that you take along the path are remarkably similar to that which you would take as a layperson.

While health writers are in demand, your success for becoming one depends on demonstrating that you have the necessary skills, knowledge, and writing ethos to produce quality medical, wellness, or fitness content. Whether you are a health care provider, a professional writer, or a hopeful amateur, you need to take roughly the same steps to establish your qualifications.

 

1. Get the Necessary Education

To be considered for a health writing position or freelance gig, you typically need to have at least a four-year bachelor’s degree. This can be in any area of study, but it is often helpful if it is in the sciences or language arts, as these knowledge bases are directly transferable to health writing.

If you have an associate’s degree in a medical field, that might be sufficient to open the door to health writing, especially if you have practical experience to back it up. If you are a physician or a registered nurse, then you have already met the educational requirement and can skip to the next step.

 

2. Strengthen Your Weak Areas

If you are already a health care professional, you may not have to do as much to establish yourself as a medical writer. However, you may need to refresh yourself on the rules and conventions of writing. This is especially true if you have not produced much since completing your education.

If you’re approaching health writing via the other path, you may already have the necessary writing skills but lack the scientific knowledge required. If this is the case, it is crucial that you give yourself a basic grounding in medicine, particularly medical terminology. Even if you intend to write public-facing content, you still need to understand and correctly interpret the professional language that you will encounter while researching the content that you write. There are training programs available to help you, most available for a reasonable fee.

On a related note, as someone who worked in medical communication for the better part of a decade, I recommend that anyone serious about health writing obtain medical spellcheck software and install it on your computer. It’s not a substitute for understanding medical terminology, but when it comes to the proofreading and editing stages, it saves you so much time.

 

3. Update Your Resume

Your resume should reflect both your knowledge of health care and your skills in writing. If you’re a layperson just starting out in health writing, this can be a little tricky at first. Nevertheless, even if your experience is a little thin, you can list any training that you have gone through in regard to health writing and medical terminology.

On the other hand, if your experience is clinical in nature, you should refresh your resume to showcase any professional or scientific writing that you have already done. For example, if you have written articles that have been published in medical journals or other professional publications, that is something that you want to highlight on your resume when trying to establish yourself as a medical writer.

 

4. Join a Professional Organization and Get Credentialed

Becoming a member of a professional organization, such as the American Medical Writers Association, can open a lot of doors for you. Professional organizations often offer you the opportunity to receive a certification or other credential. This can give you an edge when you are competing against non-credentialed writers for positions and jobs. It shows that you have met or exceeded a baseline set of standards for qualification in your chosen area. Membership in a professional organization may also give you access to exclusive job search resources.

If you are already a health care provider, you are almost certainly a credentialed member of a professional organization. However, if you are serious about medical writing, you may want to consider becoming a member of AMWA or a similar organization to take advantage of the specific benefits it offers.

 

5. Establish Your Online Footprint

Certification and professional organization membership are important ways of establishing your credibility. However, in the Information Age, credibility also comes with a significant online presence. If you do not have much of a footprint on the World Wide Web, you may end up an unknown quantity to those who may be interested in hiring you to create health content for them. Furthermore, if you’re planning on writing content for web publication anyway, it is a good idea to show yourself to be technologically competent at the very least.

When you start seeking health writing jobs, you usually have to show a portfolio. You can build your portfolio while establishing your online footprint by starting up a blog related to medicine, wellness, or fitness. Once you have a blog, it puts you in a better position to start writing guest posts, which is another way to both demonstrate your writing skills and establish your online presence.

 

6. Build Your Network

Joining a professional organization is one way to start networking. However, you can do more to build your network. It can start with connections you already know. Ask your doctor, dentist, or veterinarian, as well as friends you may have in the health care field, if they know of any health writing opportunities. Read blogs related to health and medicine and get in touch with the authors about the possibility of becoming a guest contributor.

 

Where Can You Find A Health Writer Job?

Because health writing can be highly technical and requires specific qualifications, it can be difficult to find related jobs on ordinary employment sites. Where you go to find work as a health writer may depend on the kind of work you want to do. For example, if you want to write professional-facing content, you should query peer-reviewed medical journals, health care organizations, government agencies, or medical schools. On the other hand, if you want to write public-facing content, consider contacting newspapers, magazines, trade journals, or health care societies and associations.

A content writing agency such as BKA may also offer opportunities in health writing as well as a wide range of other fields. Companies and organizations seeking freelance health and fitness writers may benefit significantly from working with a writing agency as well.