Healthcare copywriting: personal link enhances storytelling
Improving your healthcare copywriting is easier when you have a personal connection. Copywriters can write with authority about subjects they know little about. But if a client asks you to write about issues affecting your friends or family, the storytelling juices start flowing.
I knew about respiratory disorders before I started healthcare copywriting about COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in press releases and brochures for GCE Healthcare last year.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have to reach far to understand how people with breathing difficulties rely on oxygen and can be more mobile with portable equipment.
Healthcare copywriter who knows about COPD
Respiratory disorders run in my family. Both grandfathers had severe asthma. My siblings have it, too. My parents survived tuberculosis in the 1960s but two years ago Mum’s life was shortened by lung cancer. So, I know how hard it is to watch someone you love fight for every breath.
In her final weeks, Mum had a large oxygen cylinder for home use, which was pretty unwieldy. A portable oxygen concentrator gives those with respiratory disorders more independence and mobility, helping them to get out and about for as long as they are able.
Writing about health subjects you care about
The process of healthcare copywriting is essentially the same, whether I’m writing about a subject I know nothing about or writing about COPD, which I know something about.
When you have a personal connection with whatever you’re writing, the main difference lies in how much research you need to do. Instead of researching a subject from a standing start, you have a head start – saving some initial time spent.
Another plus is knowing the readership. Every healthcare copywriter knows they have to adapt what they’re writing to the audience they’re writing for and it helps to have some sympathy with them. But if you already have some inkling of what the readers are going through you can write with empathy.
To find out more about lung conditions and COPD visit the British Lung Foundation.
